


Deletion Survivor WIXOSS

by verifiaman



Category: Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network, selector infected WIXOSS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, During Canon, F/F, F/M, Not Beta Read, Shoujo-ai, Yuri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 73,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verifiaman/pseuds/verifiaman
Summary: (Only the first chapter is proofread and edited. fair warning)They appear on the PETs of young girls. They give them powers that turn them into aces, models, anything they want. And all the girls in the PETs ask for is to NetBattle.Anyone who has come in contact with the card game known as WIXOSS has become a different person. Memories altered, personalities changed, as if someone else was in their bodies.And for one Dr. Albert Wily, former robotocist, this was a decent show while he went along with his plans. With the master of this twisted game at his beck and call, this WIXOSS system will give his operatives the power they need to bring about Cybergeddon!"Soon, Lan and MegaMan.EXE will learn about this twisted game, and the role of his friends, old and new. "Open!""
Relationships: Akira Aoi & Ruko Kominato, Aoi Akira & Kominato Ruuko, Eugene Chaud, Hashimoto Amika/Mizushima Kiyoi | Piriluk, Hikari Netto | Lan Hikari & Ijuuin Enzan | Eugene Chaud, Hikari Netto | Lan Hikari/Sakurai Meiru | Mayl Sakurai, Rockman.EXE | MegaMan.EXE/Roll.EXE
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Rei Saiko**  
Age:23  
Country of origin: Japan, Hashima Island  
Education: K-12 completion, graduation from West DenTech University, majored in Navi development, computer science, mathematics, communications. Developed Navi FlashMan.EXE at age 19.

 _ **Note on Past Experiences**_  
Assistant to Gauss Magnes in the process of turning MagnetMan.EXE into a combat Navi. data for MagnetMan.EXE’s abilities were modified and used as the core for FlashMan.EXE’s hypnosis abilities. (Note: Advise Saiko not to use the Hypno Flash on Lan Hikari. General surveillance on the boy -seeing grades, observing general behavior, obtaining thrown out report cards- suggests he is in the medium range, smart enough to register the effect, but too stupid for it to affect him. Shoot on sight instead.)

  
 **Takeo Inukai**  
Age: 45  
Country of origin: Japan, Tokyo, Yanaka Ward  
Education: K-11, falsified documents made by Inukai that showed him having completed the school curriculum. Despite this, developed BeastMan.EXE at age 16. Currently working as a Zookeeper at the Yoka Zoo.

Was able to implant obedience chips into zoo animals and fool regulation and oversight committees into thinking they were regular 134.2kHz microchips. Despite only completing the 6th grade, his smuggling ability is not to be doubted. The bragging is a problem that needs to be rectified immediately. The Gospel and the original WWW has had such idiots in its ranks, and the less Lan Hikari and MegaMan.EXE know, the better.

**Noboru Sunayama**  
Age:32  
Country of origin: Japan, Shinjuku  
Education: K-12 completion, graduation from Tokyo University before it’s closure, majored in Navi Development, Computer Science, Mathematics, Communications, 3D Modelling, Network Development. Bachelor of Applied Science in Film, Television and Digital Production. Created DesertMan.EXE at age 14, modified into combat upon joining organization.

Crimes for potential blackmail:

  1. Extortion (2nd degree)




Threatened DNN president at time into paying him under the table, otherwise the information on him working with Gospel would go public. As of today, Sunayama’s monthly wages are approximately ¥218285000.00, 33% of which is being used to fund Pulse Transmission development, as well as hire test subjects for the prototypes

  1. Extortion (2nd degree)




Threatened DNN president yet again at a later date to allow construction of a gate on Hades Island Cyber Network that connects to the Undernet. Extra funds were also procured from the president’s bank account to do this as discreetly as possible, to avoid rousing the wrath of the Undernet’s more powerful denizens.

 _ **Note on Past Experiences**_  
Out of all three, Noboru Sunayama presents the most danger. His adherence to ‘TV ratings’ and love of the dramatic could make him a potential turncoat. Inukai’s brutality and need for destruction makes him a potentially more loyal unit, being simpler to please. Seek deletion of Sunayama should his obsession ruin the plans.

* * *

“These three are the best you’ve got?”

From his desk, deep in a skull shaped cave within the raging Demon Tides, Lord Albert Wily stared at the bushy haired specter of a child, her hair, longer than her body, seemingly glowing all the colors at once, as was her skin. “Yes, these are my minions Mayu, and get out of my private server, I’m sick of the Mr.Progs complaining to me about you!”

The ‘10-year-old’ specter rolled her eyes and did just that. She didn’t move an inch, but Wily heard the little creeps sigh in relief, some crying as they put the dossiers back into their proper place. “Thank you. As for your question, I’ve handpicked these men, and 2 more human operatives, for their skills and competency. Take Mr. Saiko for example, a fantastic record of assassination, years of murder both on the physical and digital realm under his belt! The first Tetracode is within the Hikari brat’s school, and with the modifications to FlashMan’s beam, Lan wouldn’t even be able to jack his Navi in before the knife slits his throat!

“And in case he fails somehow, Inukai’s plan will surely get the job done!” Hacking into the Hikari family records was something that Wily could admit was a pain not worth attempting. The best he could do was change the field trip scheduled in the upcoming month to the Yoka Zoo. “And if Lan somehow manages to jack in, Inukai’s Navi will get rid of that blue pest! And Sunayama, _Sunayama-”_

“Please stop gloating daddy.” Mayu chastised, floating in front of his face. “Your back can’t take another bout of ‘Mwahahaha!’”

Wily grumbled. “Yes, you’re right. And don’t call me that!” The little sadist stuck her tongue out at him before floating back to the other side of his desk. “That’s enough for now, what did you come here for?”

Mayu tilted her head at him, confused. “Oh, that’s right!” She remembered with a snap of her fingers. “My little project’s going along pretty well! My favorite’s back and ready to report!”

“Ah, the Ice Navi.”

“LRIG.”

“I’m not calling them that, just summon her!”

Mayu closed her eyes and held out her hands to the desk. An icy blue pentagram formed a few centimeters above it, icicles shooting out like spears through flesh as what looked like a stage made of ice forming in the center as she began her chant.

**A Girl prayed to fulfill her wish.  
Scattered strange gene "wixoss"  
all around the world fusion into one form.  
Searching in vain for a fight...  
Victory will be the only way for her  
wish to revolutionize.  
Now, shall her "Wish Across" be conquered.**

  
And in a flash, she appeared. Wavy blue hair with the left side longer than the right, reaching past her cheek. Pale skin as white as snow, her face being the only thing she had left of her original human form. An icy blue bodysuit covered her entire being from the neck down. and her Navi insignia was quite detailed, far more so than most other custom Navis with a seemingly painted image of a young Japanese teen. She was a brunette, eyes closed and hair done in a left side ponytail. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping, hands clasped as if in prayer. “Good evening Lord Wily, Lord Mayu.” She kneeled towards Wily, her voice and face blank and expressionless. “My mission is complete.”

“Excellent, Piruluk. Did the school’s Navis give you any trouble?” A nod from her nearly made him break into a manic fit of laughter, but he had to mind his health. “And is your Selector asking any questions?”

“No. 

“Excellent!” Those two boys probably wouldn’t even recognize her, how hilarious! “Once you scout out the school, message the schematics to Saiko and Flashman.

“Understood.” 

“Yes, you may-” Wily put a hand to his mustache, rubbing it. “Ah, that’s right. Not to worry; your friend is still alive. Not from a lack of trying from your former LRIG. I’ll send you the updated medical data via Mr.Prog tomorrow.”

“...Understood. Thank you.” Her job done, she teleported out.

“Mayu, has she been getting belligerent?”

“Nope! She’s probably anticipating meeting her first friend again! Oh, but I can tell it’s eating her up inside!”

The noises coming out of the girl’s mouth made Wily regret ever teaching her how to laugh like a proper villain. But he could ignore that. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ was a favorite motto of his, and it worked for him in the past when stealing the materials needed for the Life Virus. Soon Thomas’s family’s greatest legacy would come undone, and in a way, it would be the Lights that would have ended the world. “Cybergeddon is near,” he whispered to himself wistfully as he looked up at the dreary ceiling of his hideout. “Alpha will soon be freed, and all will reset to zero.”

* * *

**WESTERN DENTCH, MURASAKI WARD, 22:33** ****

**PIRULUK.EXE HAS LOGGED IN.**

Just have to activate the cameras aaaand... good; she wasn’t here. Letting out a groan of relief, Piruluk began to relax. She wished her Selector upgraded her PET. the Model 1 variant, with it's tiny keyboard and 22GB storage, was hard to move around in, and the modifications her Selector had done to it -touch screen, larger RAM- were barely enough to make her feel comfortable in this claustrophobic nightmare. Still, at least she was alone. now all she had to do was wait for the- “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!” -Mr.Prog. Her current Selector picked the PET up, staring her in the eye. Fair skin, unkempt shoulder-length orange hair, and some wrinkled clothes she just randomly put on. Akira Aoi, her Selector, was awake. “I nearly missed my photo shoot because _someone_ didn’t set my alarm!”

|My apologies, Miss Akira.| _Just die already._ |I had business to tend to; namely setting up the tracker on your rival’s PET.|

“Oh?” And now the little cunt was all smiles again. Fakeness, that Piruluk could handle. “Then why didn’t you say so Pi-Pi? Tell me, where’s that little bitch headed?”

|To the Kotobuki City limits.| Her Selector stifled the curse that threatened to escape her lips. “Exactly.” How exactly Iona and her LRIG could even enter the Cyber Chernobyl escaped her, especially given how dangerous it was for LRIGs. |The tracking function still works within the city, so if-|

“Nope! Uh-huh!” Akira slammed down into a nearby chair. “I don’t even want to think about that dump of a city, or even step foot in there again!”

|Understood. Is there anything else you wish from me? I still have only two Life Cloths left, so if you wish to replenish my stock between shifts, now is the time.| She could never forget the Navi her Selector foolishly ordered to fight. Even with the ARTS Chips that edgelord with the fish helmet and dumb cloak nearly deleted her. They hadn’t been in a fight since.

“Grrrrrrrr…” Akira gritted her teeth, remembering that stupid Navi. “Fine!” She pocketed the PET and headed out, ignoring the stagehands and the other employees around her. She was staring at her PET’s screen, body on autopilot as she blindly and expertly walked to her destination. Two flights of stairs later she was up on the roof. “4 bars, signal strength in the green, Ener levels stable…” Oh yeah, she needed to recharge those, didn’t she? “Alright, we’re ready to go!” She held the PET up to the sky, a bright, white pillar of energy shooting from the device’s infrared port into the night sky, invisible to all but those who were chosen to participate in this twisted game. “PLUG IN, PIRULUK.EXE! OPEN!”

* * *

_**ACDC Town, 22:36.** _

_**Hikari residence.** _

|That feeling again…| 

Bringing the PET out of sleep mode, MegaMan.EXE activated the house’s security cameras, turning on the energy scanning function and pointing it in the direction of Beach City. |I knew I wasn’t glitching out!| That energy felt so familiar to him. But why?!

**MEGAMAN.EXE LOGGING ONTO HIKARI HOMEPAGE.**

**OFFICIAL NETBATTLER LICENSE RECOGNIZED. (NETSAVER V2, ©SCILAB, 2055)**

**BATTLECHIP FOLDER PERMISSIONS GRANTED TO NAVI MEGAMAN.EXE.**

**CHIP FOLDER DOWNLOADED TO REGISTRY.**

**MEGA CHIP LIMIT: 7**

**GIGA CHIP LIMIT: 7**

**RUNNING ANTIVIRUS SCAN…**

**SCAN COMPLETE. 44 VIRUSES FOUND ON HOMEPAGE. BEHAVIOR IS BENIGN, WILL POSE NO THREAT.**

**END STARTUP SEQUENCE? [Y/N]**

**STARTUP SEQUENCE ENDED.**

**MEGAMAN.EXE LOGGING ON.**

* * *

In the past, the calming blues of his home away from home would be welcoming. The Mr.Progs were happy, his friends came over, and it was just a nice place to relax. But then Lan had to go and think he was a hot shot programmer, and now… _this thing was what greeted him!_

“ _ **Lucky Lucky, Aki-Lucky! Lucky Lucky, Aki-Lucky!”**_

Again and again on repeat, each and every single day! That annoying repetition had been grating both his and the ears of the Mr.Progs that lived here, as well as any Navi that visited -well, _used_ to visit- ever since Lan decided he could try uploading his own custom wallpaper. He used to like Akira Aoi, found her quite cute and her personality refreshing. Now he and the Mr.Progs live in fear of the Bethesda level nightmare of modeling incompetence staring down at them from above, looking like an X-ray and a bad render at the same time with 90s level texturing, her favorite quote stuck on a repetitive, never-ending loop of madness. What ‘fun!’ And what was worse was that dad refused to remove the eyesore as punishment for both of them. For Lan, it was modifying data on the super expensive computer without permission. For him, it was being stupid enough to _let_ Lan modify data on the super expensive computer without permission.

Quickly, _very quickly,_ he ran to the homepage's warp gate, ignoring the crying Mr.Progs. And soon found himself on the safety of ACDC Area 1. “Finally…” Now to see where this energy was going.

* * *

_**ACDC Network, 23:32** _

_**Area 1** _

The locations of businesses and homes on the network corresponded to their locations in the Human World. AKA, the Hikari household was on the same street and geographical location in the Cyberworld as it was in the Human World. 

The gate disappeared as MegaMan exited into the area, and two minutes later he was waiting at the bus stop, sitting down on the translucent green bench as he mentally counted his bus fare, aka the internet bill for the month. _‘_ _￥_ _38K for the internet, 82GHZ connection, so I can afford the fastest bus. ACDC to Beach City should cost-’_

[Hello sir!] Oh, sweet lord, he recognized that flanging effect on the voice! [Would you like to hear about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?] MegaMan looked up, _very slowly,_ and gulped as he saw the Navi in front of him. No face, no features, just an empty doll with a symbol above its head. It was a symbol all Navis feared one you needed a plugin just to see. [For just ￥ 55,000 a month, you could get the Lord and Savior’s word straight to your homepage! Whatdya say?] This wasn’t a Navi; it was an _Adbot._

“Thank you, but no.” And then he logged the Navi’s ID into his system and blocked it, rendering the Navi invisible to him. Which should give him at least six minutes of reprieve until it changed its ID. Using that time, he called the bus, waited 4 minutes until it arrived got on, and sat down. And he just knew from the looks on everyone’s faces that the thing followed him on board, still talking about selling Christian videos to him. _‘Just keep focused, just keep focused…’_ He could lose it in Beach Square. Adbots fry like moths to a light when they go there, and luring them to squares was often a thing young Navis and some Netops - like Lan, GutsMan and Dex - did to pass the time. 

The bus drove off, MegaMan looking at the passengers to see where they were staring, and punching the space next to it, causing everyone to sigh in relief. But they knew it wouldn’t last; these things didn’t stay down until you bought something from them, or killed them. And if you killed one, more would come. He, like everyone else, remembered Gospel’s global freeze of the entire global Network just a month or two back, and how these abominations ran rampant. If there was anything everyone agreed on, it was that leaving them alone and letting them talk was the best way to get them to stop talking to you.

* * *

_**Beach Area 1, 24:10** _

_**Tapioca Shopping Mall lobby, closing time.** _

Tapioca Mall was one of the biggest online shopping centers in central Japan. Hosting over 50,000 stores connected to retailers all across the country, it was anyone’s go to place for shopping online, paying and delivering to your doorstep in a quick, secure, and easy manner. It was so big that the CyberTransit System had its own stops and routes in and out of the mall. Security was high, even now at closing time, with powerful, heavily armed and armored Navis stationed at the many store entrances and entryways, armed with sci-fi equivalents to SIG Sauer MCX Carbines. After WWW and Gospel, it was rare to _not_ see these guys in major places of business and areas of high travel, and they certainly did their job, their presence alone scaring many HeelNavis away. Shame they couldn’t do anything about the Adbots.

[Look at these nudes!]

“No.”

[Look at these nudes!]

“No.”

[Look at these nudes!]

“No.”

[Look at these nudes!]

“No.”

[Look at these nudes!]

“No.”

|Oh, for fuck’s sake…| Piruluk heard her Selector say on the other end. |Just shoot the damn thing!|

“You know full well that won’t work.” Even with this NAT cloak she bought, she had a pretty good feeling that her IP Address was already logged into this thing’s systems, and no way was she going to risk the same happening with government security as tight as this by firing a live weapon.

|I don’t care! You both have been saying the same damn thing on repeat for days!]

“It’s been 40 milliseconds, 30-”

|Don’t fuck with me Navi! Is that damn Link up?!|

“45%” That little bitch’s screams were so delightful under the right conditions. “Estimated time until-” Her eyes widened. “Oh.”

[Look at these nudes!]

**LRIG (2) DETECTED.  
**

|Finally, some action! We can steal _their_ Life Cloths! Go over there now!|

[Look at these nudes!]

“Understood.” That signal...it’s just like the one Wily installed in her databanks. The different shades of blue, the yellow ridges on the helmet, the Hikari family emblem on his chest. The scourge of WWW, the savior of Kotobuki, he was coming here, and like it or not, she’d have to kill him, for _her_ sake. _‘I’m sorry Lan.’_ There was no way they planned this meeting, but Mayu was probably giving her father a front row screening to the upcoming event. _‘I’m so sorry.’_

[Look at these nudes!]

Piruluk just stared at thing before giving it a fake E-mail account and running off. That oughtta buy her a few minutes. She’d kill Lan’s Navi and the two LRIG’s in his vicinity, though why she was sensing MegaMan and not picking him up on her other sensors was a mystery. It was almost like her systems thought he was an LRIG or something!

Unbeknownst to the blue LRIG however, her target was suffering from similar pains as she was.

[It’s almost closing time little boy! Jesus frowns on those who don’t follow the rules!] Because he couldn’t get rid of this stupid Adbot! [Let us listen to a sample of the King James Bible full version available for download for ¥6000!] The automatic sidewalk MegaMan was on would be more like a walk of shame if there was anyone else about, listening to the Book of Psalms for the twelfth time! Well, that was a lie. This Adbot was glitched out heavily, so he was only hearing the first six lines of Psalm 74, over and over and over and over and over and over again!

[O God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember the nation you purchased long ago, the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed— Mount Zion, where you dwelt. Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary. Your foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets.]

‘ _Don’t kill it, don’t form your Buster, just.ignore.it!]_ No weapons, not here! The source of the energy signature was getting closer, 6 minutes away. _‘I can get off there and make a run for Beach Square. Just a bit more!’_

[Why thank you, young lady! May the word of Jesus Christ enrich your daily life!] MegaMan blinked; someone paid that thing?! He turned around to see the Adbot teleport away, and in front of him was the girl that paid for his freedom. “Thank you?” This was odd. No Navi insignia, her rig was excellent given her 3D Model, and she looked very familiar. Her skin was fair, not a hint of imperfections, and yet the bump mapping on it was done so well it didn’t look ‘fake’ like designer Navis you could buy at the store. _‘Energy signature, 4 minutes away.’_

“Sup Mega?” Her attire was pink: pink T-shirt, Pink shorts, pink boots, and pink, fingerless gloves and Hello Kitty-esque hat. Her blonde hair cascaded down to her feet, thick and well detailed, and interacted flawlessly with her body without clipping into it whatsoever. In fact, there wasn’t any clipping at all! Even for an expert programmer, making clothes for Navis instead of the usual simple armor and bodysuit- like the maroon one she was wearing, and no Navi insignia to boot- was hard, arduous, and not worth the time. Clothes in the Cyberworld were either physical representations of what the Navi’s NetOp wanted to buy, or a status symbol to show off how much money the Navi or NetOp had, and while he’d seen more elaborate clothing in illegal Undernet sales alone, this outfit set expensive enough that the money that went into it could’ve been better suited paying off at least 2 mortgages “...Is something wrong?”

“Uhh, sorry miss, but do I know you?” Why did she look and sound so familiar? She’s using some form of audio filter, a faint one, but it was throwing him off track. “Thanks for getting rid of the Adbot and all, but if you’re looking for a favor-”

“-What’s wrong with you?” The girl asked. “Lan tried messing with your settings again?” MegaMan backed away and raised his arms into defensive position. “What are you doing?!”

“How did you know that?” Battle Chip selection loaded. “That was on a private server!” The guards had their gazes on the two right now, but he didn’t care. “Who are you?”

“....” The girl just stared at him. _‘He’s not joking…’_ He’s acting as though she was a stranger, but that couldn’t be right! “Hold on, let me clear this up.”

**OPENING PET VID-CHAT**

**SENDING TRANSMISSION LINK TO MEGAMAN.EXE**

|Huh?| A cute, pale-skinned redhead with brown eyes was suddenly staring down on the two Navis, via a holo-screen only the two could see. |Roll, what’s going on? I was busy!|  
  
“Sorry Mayl, MegaMan’s acting weird and I just wanted to show him that everything’s ok!”

A check of the transmission link’s ID proved that he was talking to the real Mayl, which meant… “Why are you dressed like that, Roll?”

“Dressed like what?”

“Like a human!” Eyeing her attire, he missed the looks of panic both girls had. “And you have skin showing! How much did this cost you?” And it was upon hearing Mayl whisper ‘Oh crap!’ that he knew something was up. “...You didn’t pay for this, did you?” He saw that look of fear plenty of times, the same look Lan had when he did something he shouldn’t have. 

|Hey, we didn’t steal it! Roll’s always had this outfit! How can _you_ see it?| Mayl’s eyes narrowed, staring at MegaMan with the same level of suspicion he was giving to her. |Unless you’re an LRI-| **NAVI HAS SET VOICE CHAT SET TO MUTE.**

“I heard L-RIG. You didn’t mute it in time, so I heard her form a G. What’s an L-RIG?”

Roll giggled nervously. “Oh, you’re so silly Mega! It’s an acronym that stands for-”

“Activating search function now, and keep in mind you can’t Jack Out in the mall.”

A twitch began to form in Roll’s eye. “Oh, good.” She ignored Mayl’s constant texts to unmute the channel. “Look, I-” **NAVI CHAT FUNCTIONS OVERRIDDEN. CHAT PERMISSIONS TRANSFERRED TO NETOP.**

|MegaMan, we’re here on personal business, nothing illegal! You’ve known me since you and Roll were our nanny Navis, do you really think we’d steal something this expensive _and_ come to one of the biggest, most heavily armed malls in the country?|

“I-” ...That was a good point. MegaMan relented. “You’re right; I’m sorry Mayl, Roll. you ever get this feeling that you’re...meeting someone important and you gotta beat them up? I’ve been having that feeling a lot, especially after I left the PET to go to Beach City. first that feeling, then the Adbot, and now this L-RIG business, it’s making my head-” He suddenly ran towards Roll and grabbed her, jumping into the air with her in tow as a wave of water came towards them.

“What was that?!” Roll’s face told him the answer. “Was _that_ from an LRIG?” He landed on an awning, placing Roll down on the roof behind it as the attacker came into view. They wore a light blue cloak, one that made their body as transparent as ice, and completely hid their figure. **UNABLE TO ACQUIRE DATA ON LRIG. ACCESS DENIED.** Well scanning them was a bust. And again with LRIG, just what was that-

“It’s ‘girl’ spelled backwards.” Of course it was. The guards weren’t reacting to what just happened, only staring at the two of them cautiously, and the temperature hadn’t shifted in the slightest. _‘That was a fake!’_ And a quick scan proved that. It wasn’t ice, it was a movie file! And since he was the only one who acted, that meant no one else but him heard or sensed it!

The playback of the fake ice attack ended, causing it to disappear as the cloaked figure turned their attention to the two of them. MegaMan could see their body shift slightly upon looking at him before turning to Roll. “The Girl who Escaped...I’ve finally found you.” So it was a girl after all; that was rare.

Roll gave a nervous smile as MegaMan turned to her. “W-what’s she talking about? I don’t know what’s going on either! Hehehehhehehehehe….”

The figure shook her head. “Of all the people I didn’t think I’d meet here, the last two I would expect to meet were you two. Oh well. Two for one deal.” She held out a card, one that MegaMan couldn’t look at without getting a headache -same as the guards too it seemed- but Roll? She had no problem looking at it. “In any other circumstances, I would ask how you escaped this wretched game. But I need to refill my Life Cloths, and you’re still tied to some aspects of the game.”

“What _are_ you talking about?!” Roll yelled, MegaMan rolling his eyes at the poor acting from his friend. “I’m not into WIXOSS or anything!”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake...” MegaMan formed his Buster. “Let’s just fight, _far away_ from here please.”

“Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem.” The card began to glow. “Since neither of you have participated in a fight for an extended period of time, you have no choice but to fight.”

“Tch!” Roll gritted her teeth, loading her Card Folder as MegaMan began cycling through his Chips. “Fine. We have no choice. Mayl?”

|Yeah, I got it!| She shot a regretful look at MegaMan before pointing her PET’s infrared port to the window outside. |Ready Roll! Battle Routine, Set!|

“...Execute.” If she believed in God still, then she would be praying MegaMan would survive this. He had the skill, but not the strength, and in this twisted game, you needed both. “GATE OPEN!”

Piruluk sighed as she looked at MegaMan. _‘Killing two people to save one.’_ Not the worst thing she’s done since becoming an LRIG.


	2. Chapter 2

  
  


Looking into his mirror, clad in his skull themed briefs, Wily took out his teeth and put them in the cup/auto denture cleaner, giving himself a long hard stare in the mirror, focusing his hatred on the family that vexed him so by imagining it was that stupid grandson of Thomas’s staring back at him. He waited until the timer beeped before putting them back into his mouth and smacking his lips to test them out. “Good, good.” Now it was time for bed. He turned around, walked to his bed, and was blindsided by a holo-screen showing a very familiar blue Navi that had vexed him twice. “What in the world?”

“Daddy!” Wily didn’t flinch when Mayu flew through his body and framed his head in her hands with an excited smile. “That dumb Navi’s fighting my favorite LRIG! Isn’t that cool?”

“...” Wily shook his head, much to Mayu’s confusion as he sat on the bed, moving the screen to his front. “End the fight. now."

“Huh?! But why?! He’s not connected to the Life Cloth System! Any attack from her could kill him in one hit!”

“You underestimate the Lights Mayu. trust me, he’s going to find a way out of this, stronger than ever…” And of course that puppy dog stare. That fascination she had with Piruluk was going to be the death of him, he knew it. "Fine, whatever."

“YAAAAY” That stupid blue Navi was so gonna get it! He nearly killed her hero the first time, and now her favoritest LRIG was gonna kill him! And since this wasn’t a face to face fight, that means she had a front row seat to the live beatdown coming up!“Get him Piruluk.”

  
  


* * *

**AREA SCANNED FOR COMBAT POTENTIAL.**

**BATTLEFIELD SIZE: 500 SQUARE FEET.**

**TERRAIN: METAL**

**COMBATANTS**

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**HP: 1200**

**CHIP COUNT: 30.**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: 7**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT: 3**

**WIXOSS CERTIFICATION:HUB.BATCH(?)**

**ROLL.##%#3 (UNKNOWN NAVI!)**

**HP: 54$%$%%**

**CHIP COUNT: #%#%#**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: $#$#**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT: #$#$#T%#%**

**WIXOSS CERTIFICATION: SAKURAI.LM**

**LUCKYRUCKY.EXE**

**HP: #$%#%#%#**

**CHIP COUNT: #$#$#$#**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: #$#%#%#**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT: #$#$#$#$#$#**

**WIXOSS CERTIFICATION: MIZUSHIMA.LM**

**BATTLE FORECAST END.**

_‘That’s ominous..’_ Mega Man thought as the Battlefield around them loaded, the three of them in a white void as they waited. The Battle Forecast was a very powerful tool at his disposal, a form of hacking...at least he thought it was. Dad was very vague about it, and he was pretty sure that he didn’t know much about it himself. With it, he was always able to see the Chips and attack patterns of his enemies down to when they would attack. Not that it helped him sometimes because he still had to dodge the attacks and know what the Chips can do, but it was something neither Wily nor Sean could counter. But this Navi, she managed to cloud both her’s and Roll’s data from his vision! 

The Battlefield finally loaded, and it was a copy of Tapioca Mall, or at least the floor that they were on, now devoid of guards or anyone else except the three of them. Below was the trainyard, a section that was at least 6 minutes away from here, was below them, adding more to the blue Navi’s confusion,them. Before he could ask for answers, a pink gauntlet with glowing pink liquid appeared on her right arm. **DATA NOT FOUND.** "You're going to tell me everything, right?"

“Yeah..I do..” Roll looked at him with a sad smile. “Mega, please just stay-” Her eyes widened as he walked to a seat and sat down. “You’re gonna let me handle this?” MegaMan nodded. “Why?”

“I have no idea what’s going on, but you do. LuckyRucky called you ‘The Girl Who Escaped’, and my Battle Forecast is glitched out with something called WIXOSS Certification added to it’s list of categories. Right now, I'm just here for support. Until I know just what's going on or what happened to my systems, I'm not fighting on the front lines.

“Alright.” Roll turned to LuckyRucky, attempting to open a CommLink to the enemy Selector’s PET. **USER REGISTERED TO PRIVATE.** “What’s wrong? Your Selector scared?”

“No.” Piruluk’s attention was divided between Roll and MegaMan. _‘To think that Lan’s grown so much.’_ Then again given what he’s been through and done, you’d have to have a sturdy head on your shoulders. Shame she was about to chop one of them off. “Enough talk. Turn counter stopping in 3...2...1…”

**FIRST GROWTH: ROLL.**

  
  


“GROW!” Roll shouted, her hair gaining a pinkish tint as LuckyRucky flew towards her with a plain looking blue staff with a blue, crystal orb. Looking through her cards, Mayl selected her first SIGNI and placed them. _‘Not a good hand-’_ Roll thought as she read the data Mayl transmitted to her. Two Level 5s, one level 1, and two level 3s _‘-But it will have to do!’’_ She rolled out of the way as LuckyRucky slammed her staff down at the spot she was at, creating a chill in the air that made Roll feel very sluggish for a second. _‘She was channeling some elemental energy...was that her Charge Shot?’_ But it was so weak!

**ROLL.EXE**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 40,000**

**-200 DUE TO SPLASH DAMAGE.**

**SPEED LOWERED FOR 20 SECONDS.**

“What in the world?” MegaMan blinked as she watched Roll bob and weave through the staff strikes,becoming sluggishly slow at random intervals. He-he couldn’t have read all that correctly, could he? But a cursory glance told him that yeah, he did read it correctly! _'200 damage in one hit?!'_ But Roll only had 122 HP the last he checked! Acting quickly, He quickly loaded up his BattleChip Folder and barely a second later loaded up the pieces to his favorite combo.

**Program Advance**

**Sword A + WideSword A + LongSword A = Lifesword**

**FireSword H + AquaSword H + ElecSword H = LifeSword2**

Before he could make another, his attention was necessitated by the fight in front of him, namely dodging a streak of pink smoke that stopped just before it hit the bench. All three of them looked on in shock, Roll apologizing quickly as she and her opponent frantically looked around.

"Sorry Mega!"

|Whew! We’re good Roll. You stopped it just in time.|

|What the hell was that pink little twerp thinking?!| Thankfully their IP wasn’t logged, but still! |Piruluk, can we leave?|

“No.” the LRIG answered as she caught Roll’s punch by grabbing her arm with both hands, kicking her in the stomach and then using her leverage to slam the pink LRIG -gently- onto the ground before quickly bringing her staff out and slamming it into her.

|ROLL!|

**ROLL.EXE**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 39,600**

**-200 DUE TO SPLASH DAMAGE.**

**FROZEN SOLID!**

Got the mystery out of the way for now, time for the main threat. Piruluk turned to face Lan’s Navi as it readied what looked to be a Ver2 LifeSword, and pointed the blade at her. “I know you can see our HP values and damage data without a NetOp. Do you really think a measly 500HP sword will hurt me?”

“Nope.” With his free hand, he summoned a Minibomb and bounced it casually. “But this will.” He threw the bomb, LuckyRucky easily catching it. “Oops.”

“What are you plann-” The bomb then exploded, only it was harmless white smoke that was not good for her throat. “You think that-” she began hacking violently, tears running down her eyes as she tried to reorient herself. “That this will-” And then she felt it, what had to be one of the worst pains imaginable, 3rd only to that Navi with the fins and the cloak. The thing about LifeSwords 2&3 was that when making the Program Advances for them, all three elements were in effect. Now for normal Navis that wasn’t much of a problem, since the three elements would cancel each other out no matter what elemental affinity the Navi belonged to. Not so much for LRIGs, as Piruluk realized, unable to move thanks to the giant hand-sword in her chest. “T-that...how?!”

MegaMan raised a brow as LuckyRucky dropped her staff. “I distracted you?” He drove the sword deeper into her chest. And just what did she mean by ‘measly?’

“N-not that!” How was it able to hurt her?! “GRRRK!” With a kick to his abdomen that sent him into a wall without damaging it, she managed to wring herself free from the blade, floating away with the finesse of a bloodied drunk as she looked at her stats . _‘That’s impossible!’_

|C-can this WIXOSS stuff glitch out or something Piruluk?!| Because from where Akira was standing, Piruluk didn’t lose a single hit point!

“N-no…” Oh, she felt like she was gonna puke! “BattleChips, _now._ ”

|U-um yeah!| God it felt so weird seeing Piruluk like this! Luckily her LRIG always made her keep some BattleChips mixed in with her deck. |Recover 200!|

It didn’t do much for her injuries, but it was like a wonderful morphine injection. “I’m back.” She muttered weakly, attempting her normal, lifeless tone. “We need to get rid of him, now.” She dodged another strike from Lan’s Navi, easily getting out of the way of the LifeSword2. “Take a look at his stats.”

|Hm?| Akira did so, and here eyes widened with glee. |That kick took off 600HP!| Yeah, that's right! All damage was doubled against non-LRIG Navis! |Sending cards now!| Now while she enjoyed taking her time with weaklings, she wasn’t stupid, despite what her grades told you. This blue twerp managed to stab Piruluk, make it hurt like hell, and yet didn’t take off a _single_ bit of HP. Not only that, but he was in a fucking Selector Battle like he was an LRIG, and the WIXOSS System treated him as though he _was_ an LRIG! Was it some NetSaver shit she didn’t know about? Doesn’t matter! Her PET was giving her a deletion warning given how severe his damages were, something it never did in a WIXOSS fight! |Let’s get rid of him!| And she knew just what to send her! |Data sent!|

“Good.” And it was the perfect card to use against the thing. Clutching her still pained stomach, she waited for Lan’s Navi to come after her again, using a different strategy this time to confuse her by activating LifeSword2’s AquaBlade and then quickly switching to the fire one to create scalding steam. She simply floated above it and tracked him through the steam. “Peeping Analyze.

  
  


**PEEPING ANALYZE ACTIVATED. 2(BLUE) CARDS DISCARDED FOR COST**

**NO WIXOSS CARDS FOUND ON TARGET.**

**SELECT LETTER, ELEMENT, OR CHIP TYPE AS TARGET.**

Akira pursed her lip. The Navi was a NetSaver, one trusted enough to use BattleChips without his NetOp’s input. He could have Program Advances out the ass waiting for her, able to deal out pain while pinkie thawed out! |Let’s see… Element. Sword!|

**TARGET FOUND!**

**ALL SELECTED CARDS WITH (SWORD ELEMENT) DISCARDED**

“He felt that one.” Piruluk noted, seeing him stop in place in the smoke and look around frantically. “Code ART: RFR.” She held out her hand, and in her palm formed a smiling snowman the size of a basketball.

**Code Art: RFR**

**[ON PLAY] Draw 1 card**

“Goodbye.” And with as much strength as she could, she threw the snowman at Lan’s Navi, who unfortunately saw it as the snow cleared. He shot at it with his Buster, though it only slowed it’s descent slightly, allowing the thing to dodge out of the way of her attack as the snowman exploded into a thick sheet of ice. “Fast.”

“What did you do?!” The kick that took out half his health, and now his Sword Chips were all gone?! 

“Simple Magic.” Piruluk said, suddenly behind him. Before he could react however, she grabbed him by the throat, and began to choke hard. “You’re going to pay for that stab wound.”

Akira blinked. _'Jeez, Piruluk must really hate this guy.'_ That fish head guy with the cloak was the only other one to harm her that badly, and she never straight out choked him! |Hm?| She looked over to pinky’s stats, and saw the frozen icon was slowly fading away. |Piruluk!|

“I know.” She could hear the ice cracking from here. “Let’s see how well you can stand up to a WIXOSS Card.” She continued to choke it, hard enough to make it hurt, but only enough to drain his HP just a bit, and waited for Roll’s ice to shatter. She heard the pink LRIG yell to let her go, along with fast footsteps. When she was just seconds away from her, Piruluk immediately put Lan’s Navi in front of her, letting it take the full brunt of the poison as it let out a loud, pained scream. 

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**UNDERSHIRT ACTIVATED**

**DELETION IMMINENT! DELETION IMMINENT!**

“Gagagagagagaggg!” Gritting his teeth, MegaMan ignored his horrified friend and bent his knee to kick Piruluk straight into her stab wound, causing her to let him go in her pain as she staggered backwards. He quickly jumped out of the way ,his eyes motioning for Roll to attack as he hid behind a pillar. 

“O-ok then… Iruka, Water Phantom!” A microphone appeared in Roll’s hand, which she then put close to her lips and began to sing into it. The loud vibrations formed into heart shaped streams of water, that hit the recovering Piruluk straight into her wound.

**Piruluk.EXE**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 12,000**

**-1000 damage.**

**Effect of Iruka, Water Phantom Activated. Opponent must Show top card!**

“Asterisk huh?” Roll noted as she went to and picked up her nearly dead friend. _‘I didn’t think that LRIGS of her caliber still used BattleChips.’_

|Roll, get to the lower floors!| Mayl instructed, frantically looking over MegaMan’s single remaining hit point. |At least two of these cards can buy us some time if we hide down there!|

“Got it!” Seeing the LRIG come at her with the staff again, Roll this time lead her to a pillar and jumped onto and then off of it, using it to bounce herself off of the current floor and down to the second one below. _‘No status changes.’_ And the slowdown effect didn’t stack, so she had an inkling of her enemy’s effect range at this level. Now she was hoping it was just a _gradual_ increase in range when she grew to Level 2. 

_‘She’s faster.’_ Piruluk noted as Roll carried Lan’s Navi to the second floor below, sending a charge shot her way that only dealt a pitiful 50HP to her. _‘And my Custom Gauge is not even halfway filled.’_ Ice LRIGS like her always had this problem, their greatest strength weakening them as well. _‘Oh...the shot was poison too.’_ No wonder it did such pitiful damage.

|WHY THE HELL IS THIS STUPID GAUGE NOT FULL YET?!|

Plus she had to deal with _that_ blaring in her ears. At least her Charge Shot was faster than it was against Bass. The Navi Customizer prototype Wily managed to swipe at least helped _somewhat_ with her attack capabilities. 

|PIRULUK, GET DOWN THERE AND KICK HER ASS!|

“Fine.” This was obviously a trap, but her enemy had a massive ball and chain in the form of Lan’s Navi, and Piruluk was going to exploit the hell out of that. Just one hit and it would be finished.

|J-Just don’t blow anything up or damage anything! I don’t want any of this to be connected back to me!|

Like she would ever do that. WWW’s plans hadn’t even started yet, so what was the point in screwing the little brat over just yet?

* * *

  
  
  


There were three trains parked before the Battlefield was loaded. Big ones, able to hold over 5000 humans if this was in their world, and it made the perfect hiding spot for the two for the last 10 minutes.

_‘Now this is something I can use!’_ Roll thought as she looked out at the train windows. LuckyRucky was looking for the two of them, slowly looking at any potential hiding spots like behind pillars or under stairs, and sometimes even under a bench to make sure they weren’t hiding by using data compression. _‘She’s not taking any chances either I see.’_ In the decade since she had escaped these battles, this was the one rule both Selectors and LRIG’s followed: Do not, under _any_ circumstances, fight in public areas.

And if you were going to damage the area around you, make sure it wasn’t populated or had high security. Because even within the safety of the battlefield, the dreaded IP Tracker followed LRIGs like a plague, and unlike a Navi there was no easy way of masking it if you damaged anything, whether you were in a WIXOSS Duel or otherwise. Her and MegaMan still had some time to hide thankfully. When your Custom Gauge filled, you _had_ to choose a card, one minimum or more depending on your current Level within a minute, three in the case of wireless fights, or you lose the match automatically. And once the card selection screen was activated, any LRIG would know where you were immediately. A Slow Gauge BattleChip from MegaMan helped mitigate that problem for her.

  
  


**_BOOM!_ **

Roll let out a small chuckle at the harmless explosion. _‘Too bad!’_ Before they hid, MegaMan, still barely functioning, decided to lay some traps of his own, sending twenty Ratton 3 mobile drones that he instructed to hide behind any possible place LuckyRucky would look, their detonation codes altered to some of the most painful looking smoke she had ever seen. “Beartrap, Medium Trap.” 

**3 CARDS ADDED TO HAND.**

**NEZUKOZO, SMALL TRAP ACTIVATED. (SELECT 1 [TRAP] FROM DECK.)**

|Alright, here we go!| Mayl touched the deck icon on her PET, which opened up a list with the specified parameters given to her by the card’s effect. |No, no, no, no, no - got it! I’m sending the data now!|

“Got it! Thanks Mayl!”

“She’s coming over to this train.” MegaMan warned, his model glitching out from his instability. “If you have a plan, let me know and I’ll set up more drones.” Custom Screen came up again, no recovery chips. Great. 

“Hmmm…” She opened up her status screen, which detailed the health of all currently active combatants, as well as the remaining cards in their decks. LuckyRucky’s was set to private, the fact she had enough points to afford said function worrying Roll greatly, and MegaMan’s information was nothing but a jumbled mess of letters and numbers for some reason. Was it because of how messed up he was?. “Mega?”

“Yeah?”

What’s your WIXOSS Certification File? You had to have seen it when the battlefield was loading.”

“It was Hub.Batch for some reason, why?”

|I knew it!| Mayl said with glee. |You hurt LuckyRucky, but didn’t take off any Hit Points! Your BattleChips hurt LRIGS, and your defense systems are saving you from being deleted by SIGNI attacks| MegaMan thought on that; so that meant that his UnderShirt program should have been either bypassed or deleted along with him under normal circumstances. |Do you know what this means?|

“No?

“It’s like you’re not inserted properly into the system!” Roll continued happily. “It’s like when Dex and Lan tried putting your programs into old ROM files!”

“Don’t remind me…” The week of repairs was _awful,_ all so that those two nimrods could cheat at old games to show up some high school kid. “I remember that clearly. Mine and GutsMan’s parameters were 99.99% compatible, but just one number threw off the entire…” His eyes widened in realization. “...Oh! Now I get it!”

“Despite what you saw, LRIGS are _LM_ Files, not EXE! The EXE extension is a fake to bypass system lockouts if we’re on a different device! That little 'thing' you told us about back on Wily's Island that connects you with Lan? That must be how you're able to do all this, even fight in a Selector Battle!”

“And since I’m not properly inserted into the system, some of the rules won't apply to me!” A smile came onto MegaMan’s face, one as big as Roll’s as he handed her temporary admin privileges to his systems. “I get what’s going on here! Just tell me what I need to do!

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Upon tiptoeing down the flight of stairs, he heard the cloaked Navi shuffling around through the furniture and luggage on the current floor. Bags left behind, suitcases, and many fridges containing replenishing Cyber Food for 5000 Zenny per meal. _‘Just have to get closer…’_ **VID-LINK OPEN. PATCHING ROLL.EXE TO OPTIC AND AUDIO SYSTEMS.** “Is this good?” He got confirmation from Roll, who used his lips to utter the words “Itete, Small Trap.” And he could see where the trap was laid. Now he just needed to get her to the trap. “AreaGrab.”

“Where are they?” Piruluk muttered as another smoke bomb exploded in her face. “Lovely.” Suddenly she felt an intense pressure around her neck and something cold against her cheek. It made a cocking sound, just like a gun. “Hello?"

“Gotcha!” He turned back to the spot he was just at, ran towards it with LuckyRucky in tow, and slammed her face first into the area, triggering the trap and jumping a good three inches away. A mousetrap formed under her, and before she could even react, it snapped down on her back.

**PIRULUK.EXE**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 11,000**

**-2000 HP FROM LV1 SIGNI**

**OPPONENT MAY NOW CHOOSE RANDOM CARD FROM HAND TO DISCARD.**

|SON OF A BITCH!| Akira shouted as a cursor began rapidly going over the cards on her screen. And the Custom Gauge was _now_ almost full! |WHY DON’T YOU GO FASTER YOU STUPID-oh I didn’t need that card anyway. Phew!| 

**SECOND GROWTH: PIRULUK**

|Finally!| Now she could use some SIGNI worth a damn, and she’d be rid of that LRIG and her Navi boyfr-why wasn’t Piruluk moving? The mousetrap was gone, she should be up and ready to kick some ass! **PIRULUK.EXE HAS BEEN PARALYZED BY ZAPRING3.** **NO HP LOSS HAS OCCURRED, ATTACK FUNCTIONALITY OF BATTLECHIP DISABLED WITH NETSAVER LICENSE V2. PARALYSIS TIME: 20 SECONDS +50 DUE TO ELEMENTAL WEAKNESSES AND HUB34#$#$#$#$# (UNKNOWN FILE!)** |GRRRRRRRRRRRR! EEAAAAGHH!| Cheating! That Navi was fucking cheating!

“So you’re a water element Navi.” MegaMan said with a grin as he used another of his NetSaver privileges, swapping out BattleChips as he pleased, and switched all his chips to electric. “Come on down Roll.”

Roll quickly ran down and aimed her gauntlet at the downed LRIG. “Thanks Mega! Comrus, Medium Trap!” A slot opened at the top of Roll’s gauntlet, which emitted a holographic keyboard that began lighting up rapidly, and with each key they lit up, a bolt of blue energy struck LuckyRucky.

**PIRULUK.EXE**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 9,000**

**-5000 HP FROM LV2 SIGNI**

**THIRD Growth: ROLL**

“Grow!” Upon uttering those words, a second gauntlet formed on her left hand, this one glowing blue. Seeing that the paralysis timer was almost up, Roll charged up her energy, causing the gauntlets to glow brightly. “How many more Elec Chips do you have MegaMan?”

“30. Changed my Chip loadout a few seconds ago. Speaking of which..” He fired another ZapRing3 into the downed Navi, increasing the paralysis time. For some reason he could hear someone screaming and cursing. She sounded familiar, and very very aggravating. “I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be a glitch in the system.” He said as he began charging his Buster. It was one of the hardest things to do, especially at the current state he was at. Whatever the parameters were that enveloped the mall, he was an outlier, something that counted and as compatible, but just _barely._ He was basically a tool, and as such could be modified by someone like Roll, who in this case was a ‘registered user.’ Good old glitches and technicalities! With just a thought, a yellow aura began to envelop him,his left arm forming into a giant hand the size of his body. With a yell, he bought it down at-

  
  
  


**ADMIN INTERFERENCE DETECTED, JACKING OUT ALL PLAYERS.**

**RESULTS:**

**ROLL.EXE. LIFE CLOTH HP TOTAL: 39,600.REMAINING LIFE CLOTHS: 6**

**PIRULUK.EXE. LIFE CLOTH HP TOTAL: (4,000) REMAINING LIFE CLOTHS: 2**

**MEGAMAN.EXE. LIFE COUNT HP TOTAL: S%#%#%**

**ADMIN DECISION: THIS MATCH IS A DRAW!**

* * *

**_Skull Island, 24:33_ **

“....” She didn’t even need to look at him to feel his disappointment.

“...”

“....I-”

“And now MegaMan knows of the Selector Battles. Are you happy, Mayu?”

“No daddy…”

Wily let out a yawn as he fully got into bed and pulled the covers over himself. “Thomas’s luck flows through their veins, remember that. Even if you have them at gunpoint, and I have plenty of times, they’ll always find a way to get out of this.” Not to mention having to call in Piruluk tog et their ace in the hole back in line. That GetAbility program of his was truly a marvel of power. “That’s why when you fight a Hikari, you go for overkill, got it? Don’t stop until they’re 6 feet under

“Alright. Get some sleep...and I’m sorry.”

Wily’s face softened before scrunching up. He suddenly felt Mayu’s presence leave the area. “Stupid girl.” She was warned not to underestimate the two. The strength they carried was immense, something she would have known if he put his put down and forced her to participate in mission briefings, and tonight MegaMan had proven he didn’t need his NetOp to activate the Style Change. By tomorrow, Lan would learn of the LRIGs, and soon, he would acquire a WIXOSS deck of his own. The fact MegaMan could even compete in the first place was something he predicted, given the propensity for last minute miracles the boys seem to be fond of, he just wished it happened after he at least had one TetraCode in his possession.

* * *

**_WESTERN DENTCH, 24:33_ **

**_MURASAKI WARD_ **

On any other day, Akira would be delighted to see her LRIG looking so pathetic and frazzled, And the gaping stab wound in the miss Stick Up Her Ass’s chest was the icing on the cake as well. Her outfit was smoking, her body was twitching randomly despite her admirably trying to keep up that ice queen look of hers, and she was stuttering a lot. Her hair had exploded into a giant afro with burn marks, and her attempt to act like her Rei Ayanami wannabe self and failing would be hilarious.

|I-I-I-I-I| **SWITCHING TO TEXT MODE.**

But today was not one of those days. “Piruluk, what the _hell_ was that?!” Her LRIG had been hit by Battlechips before, especially electrical ones. The weakness she had to electric attacks was something that was unavoidable, given that LRIGS were just souped up Navis in the end, and they had to follow the Light Albert laws of Cyberphysics to even function on the Net. But whenever she was hit by an electrical attack, even from Program Advances, they didn’t do any damage. Hell , they shouldn’t have affected her, or _hurt her!_ But look where little miss Ice Queen was now, ass kicked by some skinny twerp in a jumpsuit with a stab wound from a goddamn Program Advance!

|If you mean how that Navi was able to hurt me, I am unsure.| Was the first line of text that appeared on screen. |If you meant who ended the fight however, that I can answer. At any time, the creator of this game can Jack Out any players participating in wireless Selector Fights . It seems that Navi being able to harm me in any capacity was a big enough threat to the game, and whether or not he disabled the Chip’s attacking capabilities is irrelevant at this point. She’s probably going over the data right now of my one sided fight as we speak.|

It took Akira a second to decipher that fancy looking chicken scratch Piruluk chose for a font. She never could read that fancy cursive crap. “Damn it…” Her luck was getting better and better, wasn’t it? Piruluk’s slowing effect would have frozen that Navi with just a few strikes if she didn’t have to worry about lawsuits or fines! “Fuck it, I got school tomorrow.” At least there was one bright spot for her. Tonight, she would say goodbye to her old school, where everyone treated her like a joke and she was the town clown, all because of that Iona bitch. Tomorrow, ACDC Academy was where she would complete her education. A prestigious academy in the sticks, she could start anew, regain her social standing, and with the credentials there, getting her ticket back to the top would be a cinch!! “Go to Beach Square and put a note on a BBS or something. Maybe we can wrangle in some weaklings in the morning if anyone responded. I’m going to bed.” 3 years of hell because of that bitch, having to scrape by with shitty public access advertisements that of course her ‘generous’ sponsor got over 88% of the cut for each job! But now that she got into ACDC Academy, it was only a matter of time before Akira Aoi was back on time! In just a few months she’d be 18 years old, and before that day comes, it’ll be that black haired bitch and her creepy LRIG living in some **_SHIT FLAT WITH A 44KB CONNECTION!_ **

|Understood.|Piruluk set Akira’s alarm, downloaded the t directions to get from here via bus or train, put the nudes in the trash folder - _’Goddamnit.’_ The Adbot must’ve logged her IP Address before the fight. Now she had to wade through this crap.

* * *

  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE HAS LOGGED ONTO HIKARI HOMEPAGE**

**_“Lucky Lucky, Aki Lucky, Lucky Lucky, Aki Lucky…”_ **

MegaMan gently petted one of the frightened Mr.Progs, knowing full well shooting that abomination in the sky would only damage the computer. “It’s going to be ok.” He said soothingly. “She can’t hurt you.”

“A-ARE YOU SURE?” The little guy asked through heavy tears.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” None of them were in a state to help him right now. Someone hacked into the transmission link and Jacked Out not only him, but probably Roll and the other Navi. “Get some rest, I’ll take over from here.”

“THANK YOU!”

The Mr.Prog jacked out with a shout of ‘I’M FREE!’, which caused the others to do so, thinking they were being let go for the night. A growl escaped MegaMan’s lips as he went and locked the Homepage up for the night. By now, the Sakurai Homepage would be locked up tight. The only way to get some answers now would be to wake Lan up and have his brother take him there,b ut given his grades today, Mom would throw a fit if they tried that. And so reluctantly he got some sleep. And come sunrise, Mayl and Roll had a _lot_ of explaining to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**BeachArea 4, 12:50**

**Square Entrance**

For the Netizens of Eastern DenTech, Beach Street’s Cyberworld was a reprieve from the cold industrial feeling of the other networks. No smokestacks, cold grey buildings, or gloomy skies, but calming waves with the most impressive looping animations and sounds on the net. The water moved realistically, as smooth as the real thing, and interacted with the environment _flawlessly_ without clipping into the area’s geometry. Palm trees were properly textured and sized, with the textures aligned perfectly to each 3D model, and though they couldn’t replicate the feel of a real palm tree, they were getting close. Beach Area however, was just the main appetizer for Beach Street’s and Eastern DenTech’s source of income and the origin of the heaviest internet traffic in all of DenTech City next to Tapioca Mall: Beach Square

Beginning development after the Oven Fire Tragedy, which claimed the lives of over 55 people, 122 homes, and the perpetrator was never found, the Squares were a worldwide effort to give Navis and humans a feeling of safety, where they wouldn’t have to worry about intercepted phone calls or Emails, where they can buy and sell safely, and where, and this was most important to the average civilian, they wouldn’t be hounded by viruses at every corner. Such a thing exploded in popularity, and thanks to the efforts of one Dr. Hikari, there was never a worry of a server crash, lagging, or Certificate Rejection as a result of overloaded servers, preventing Navis from entering or exiting. In addition to having the same, strict level of security for each of them, the Squares had different themes, sizes, and sometimes shapes, and Beach Square’s was no different, it’s entirety wrapped up in a giant clam shell that required an escalator -or elevator for those who can afford higher internet speeds- to get down to.

“Almost there…” Piruluk mumbled with a yawn, still in her NAT cloak. “Just a bit more…” Coming her always calmed her down. The extravagance and opulence on display was put more into the calming effect of the area to mix _in_ with showing off how rich Beach Street was instead of sticking out like one of Akira’s stress pimples back when she 86’d her career. Take the sky here, one of the more disorienting sights for first timers to the area. Usually you’d have to go to places like SciLab’s main Network -or WWW’s home server- to see something this detailed, but it was right up there, and with no strain on the server’s performance. It was multilayered, three layers she guessed, the first being a looping water effect with transparent blue colors. 

The second showed an upside down reef that changed every six hours or so. Both them and the fish that swam to and fro were on a RNG system, with a smart filter preventing any shapes that one would deem inappropriate from forming, and keep certain animals from appearing -though you’d have to register and pay for that so you wouldn’t see the animal from your point of view. That was the second layer. The third layer was the night sky, a live feed of the stars above DenTech to give it that authentic feel. The escalators and elevators had the same RNG algorithm implemented into them as well. The balustrade of the escalators had mini reefs and fish built into it, and the elevators could be customized for any underwater theme that you wanted, provided you had the cash. All in all, this was the perfect place to forget about Akira, WWW, the thing that had Lan’s face, the stab wound it gave her, and Akira, and just calm herself down. She had a busy morning ahead of her, and she didn’t want to waste it.

* * *

  
  
  


**Downtown ACDC, 01:11**

**Security Sector 1**

From military buffs to mecha hobbyists and even college level programmers, the Sniper Joe line of robots was a threshold only the most ambitious could ever dream of crossing.

Averaging out at a 5’5” with few height variations depending on the model, the Sniper Joe robots were a multipurpose line of machines designed for pretty much anything. Bodyguarding, policing, killing, they were something to be loved by those who’ve seen them from afar, adored by those who controlled them as it made their lives a lot easier, and hated by those who’ve been at the end of their gun barrels, and those who have had the misfortune of being in that situation were in the majority of those who interacted with these things. Yes, Sniper Joes were better at killing things rather than anything else, and with their somewhat dimwitted AI and inability to connect to a modern network, it made hijacking by NetNavi or any analogous method of control impossible.

Unless you were working with the man who _created_ the killer robots, which in that case you just waved hi to the bucket of bolts as you walked by, which is what one Rei Saiko did, despite being in Japan's Bingo Book for a bucketload of crimes, which was what one Rei Saiko was. Lord Wily was truly a genius ahead of his time. A simple signal transmitter in his robes given to him by the future destroyer of the world exploited a flaw in the Joe’s coding for their optical display, registering him as friendly, as well as sending a second signal to scramble the video feed. Anyone looking over the robot’s data would see nothing wrong, and won’t suspect even the slightest bit of sabotage. The robots ignored Saiko as they patrolled the ruins of downtown ACDC, all for a prize that wasn’t there.

WWW’s attack on the area’s automated traffic system was one of the organization’s more ambitious acts of terrorism, one that put the name on the map and left the Japanese slang version of LOL something to be reviled. Madoi Iroaya’s hijacking of the the area’s network also hooked her up to the surveillance system for all of the city, and with a little bit of Wily’s knowledge, soon the whole of Japan bore witness to WWW’s might. 

￥22 million yen worth of damages, over 122 business shut down, and over 110 casualties made the Auto-Traffic tragedy the worst terrorist attack to hit Japan, at least until Gospel came along. _‘Scuttle all you want, little tin cans, you’re never going to find what you’re looking for.’_ Make a stink online about some hidden cache of WWW data, and the government was getting their guard dogs to look for a fool’s errand. How funny! _‘Now where was that satellite dish?’_ With a flick of his left sleeve, his PET flew out, and he caught it in his hand. “FlashMan, how much farther?”

|22 meters. Make a right at the next corner and head in through the emergency exit to your left.| Saiko looked in the general area he was being directed to. All he saw was some dinky antennae at the top of a building. “Is it inside the facility?”

|No. The antennae is your destination.|

“I see…” A small beeping noise from his clothing told him the cloaking device’s battery was almost out of energy. He’d have to recharge soon.

He managed to get up to the building with little difficulty, save for some bodies as a result of poor cleanup, or whatever backhanded deal Lord Wily did to get these robots stationed here. The antennae itself was an antique of times past,one of those giant ‘rabbit-ear’ signal transmitters back in the early 1990s. And in quite excellent condition. It was still receiving power, and the robots and their human masters seemed to have ignored it altogether. Patting the device at the base, he found a Jack-In, port, PET Model 1, Version 2, from back when he was a child. “It’s so dusty…” Thick dust at that, clogging the port and would fry his PET if he tried plugging it in. Saiko sighed as he pulled a cotton swab and a bit of rubbing alcohol from his robes. “Why can’t people keep these things clean?”

3 minutes later the port was clean. Searching through his robes, he pulled out a microfiber cloth and a PET Model 1 Jack-In Cable, first cleaning off the port of any residue, and then plugging the cable into a special slot on the back of his PET. “Jack-in, FlashMan.EXE. Execute.”

* * *

Like many powerful Navis, ones with high processing power, low bulk, and the ability to process things over 200 MB, FlashMan. EXE’s design was akin to a man in a costume. ’ In FlashMan’s case, his skinsuit was pitch black, little shading or lights on it’s texturing to give it any sort of definition when looking at it from any angle. Stomach length, dark lilac armor covered his chest and back, a tall collar protecting his neck area from the sides and behind, and two cables sticking out from an ovular energy pack like handlebars. His face was covered by, or perhaps truly was nothing more than a silver faceplate hiding a black, featureless void, with an unique eye shape: although both optic pupils were distinct, there was no flesh or metal separating the eyes, with their connection visible at close range.His shoulders were perfect spheres, the bottom parts the same lilac color as his armor, and the top part a translucent yellow dome containing various bits of circuitry and nodes that flickered every few seconds. His helmet also had a yellow dome atop it, wider than his head with an egg-like shape with lilac ridges that cast a shadow over his mouthless face. The arms were protected with triangular gauntlets, offering decent protection, though they were more for controlling his power. An Elec-Type Navi like FlashMan usually had to have a lot of armor and machinery built into them, partly to regulate the amount of voltage they can control legally or otherwise, and partly so they wouldn’t fry someone’s computer by accident, often killing themselves by proxy as a result. WWW’s previous Elec-Type Navi, ElecMan, was at the time one of the slimmest pure electric elemental types in the world, a prototype almost, and now he, FlashMan, was the finished product, a testament to the skill Master Saiko and Lord Wily showed in reconfiguring his data for combat.

As he stepped off of the antenna network’s Warp Gate and onto the TV shaped floor tiles , he saw at least 6 Mr.Progs, not even acknowledging his presence and fading in and out of existence every few seconds. Their eyes were hollow, empty smiles on what were basically vegetables. “How long has this antenna been inactive…?” It was running on an older interface, far too primitive for his systems to operate without some form of emulator to compensate for the settings his operating system lacked. Luckily for him however, he had these creepy, smiling creatures, and all that was needed was to wake them up. “Electro Refresh.” A ball of yellow energy formed in his hand and shot out to the Mr.Progs, jolting them awake. “Your caches should be refreshed, so I can assume you’re able to talk now.”

“OH YES!” Oh the shouting. He forgot about their shouting. “WE ARE AWAKE ONCE AGAIN!” The little gremlins hovered over to him, the biggest smiles on their faces. “HOW CAN WE THANK YOU GOOD SIR?!”

|Well, this was easier than I thought.| Saiko said in amazement. He was just going to have FlashMan delete them, but he might have found some new training dummies, and he hoped for their sake that it was for the WWW Navis and not those strange ‘LRIGs’. Good lord what a ridiculous name. |Change of plans FlashMan.|

“Understood.”

“DID YOU SAY SOMETHING, SAVIOR?”

“Nothing of importance. I have a new job for you; will you accept?” And now they were cheering. And shouting. _‘Ugh, this is why I delete the annoyances on sight.’_

* * *

  
  
  


**Skull Island, 02:33**

“Daddy, The guy with the funny hat’s calling!” 

From his bed, Wily’s eyes shot open as he pulled the covers off of him, got up, and quickly got into his day clothes and his cane to support himself. Exiting his room he found Mayu holding up a holo-screen with Saiko’s face on it. Behind the man was some rubble and a car stuck in a building. “Why are you still in the city?”

|My apologies, but FlashMan hasn’t finished installing the software. I’ve called to establish a direct link to our servers for the data transfer.”

“Good, good. Mayu?” With a giggle, the girl transported him right into his office. The giant grey statues that framed all four ends of the room stared down imperiously, situated on top of large podiums with massive cables that jutted out of their bases and into the checkerboard floors. at the far end of his room was his desk, his seat of power. Back when he was in the field of robotics, he came up with an idea for a robot whose exterior was made entirely of wood, with a special coating on every bit of the machine to make it even tougher than a Sniper Joe’s armor. This mahogany, skull shaped desk was the result of that idea, with a 15 petaflop speed and the most powerful computer in the world next to the one made by Thomas’s brat. 

Taking a second to revel in his power, Wily casually walked to his desk and sat down, Mayu activating the desk’s systems and producing the same holoscreen Saiko was on. “All systems ready.”

|Thank you, Lord Wily. I-| Saiko blinked, watching as Mayu bought out what looked to be a card mat and two decks, giving a reluctant Wily one deck while she gleefully held the other. |Ah yes, the WIXOSS project.| He had met Piruluk.EXE once or twice. Such a powerful Navi, though she had to be given her job.

“Mhm!” Mayu cheered as she hovered around Wily’s head. “We play it every day, to keep his skills sharp!”

“Sacrifices have to be made.” Wily said to Saiko as he looked over the cards, grimacing in disgust as he saw the artwork. “I just have to do this for an hour and….and….” He placed a hand on Mayu’s shoulder, causing her to stop. “What did I tell you about bringing this _filth_ around me?”

The ghostly girl rolled her eyes. “We kill people all the time, kids even, and some skin is what you’re worried about?”

“They look like _children!_ ”

“And a lot of the LRIGS I greet every week _are_ kids, ones my age even!” 

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“It’s so funny seeing their reaction to their new forms too! Especially the really stick in the muds, those get the best reactions!”

“Yes and-” His eyes widened. “Are you meaning to tell me you’ve been putting **_teenaged girls_ ** in these outfits?!”

“Yep!”

|Lord Wily, what is she-| Mayu uploaded the card her dad was complaining about to Saiko’s feed, giggling when the man nearly yelled out. |My god! She looks like a prostitute!| 

“I know…”

|S-she looks 13!|

_“I KNOW!”_

“Isn’t it great!” The two men winced in disgust at her glee. “It makes me so happy seeing the really reserved girls in those outfits! They sometimes even get freaked out more about the clothes than their fate! I’ve got pictures if you wanna see!”

“....”

|....| A loud beep came on Saiko’s end. |Oh thank god, FlashMan’s done!|

“ _Please_ send that data!” He was a murderer, not a pedophile, and it seems his 2nd in command _still_ couldn’t differentiate the two! “As fast as you can!” Oh, and this was only the trial phase too! The LRIG mass production was set to begin soon, and when that happened, and they found out these ‘Navis’ with these skimpy outfits were being produced by the most prolific terrorist organization on the planet? Let’s just say a certain ‘rank S’ was going to make it even harder for WWW to get rid of him.

* * *

**YokaYoka Zoo, 02:36**

**Zookeeper Quarters**

Takeo Inukai was not a smart man, according to him that was. He also wasn’t a very attractive man either. He could best be described as a giant gorilla in stature and just as fat, with beefy hairy arms, fur open vest jacket that looked freshly skinned, and a face that looked just as bestial as the animals he worked with, with a prominent, thick scratch mark over his left eye.

It was by happenstance that he was inducted into the 2nd incarnation of WWW, doing job requests on the local Help Board for some money to live on, when he went too deep into the Undernet. After a fight with some Navi that looked like a walking talking astronomy project named PlanetMan or something, he suddenly found himself in with the organization, along with a bevy of funds and plenty of blackmail material on him to keep himself silent. It wasn’t like he needed it though; he hated this stinking world, and seeing it go the way of the dodo was fine with him.

On the main monitor in his workstation were the basic files for his public persona. Everything was out for anyone to see, not like anyone _would_ though. Every one of his employees hated and feared him, and thanks to some ‘volunteers’, they feared what would happen to their careers. Yes, _careers,_ because they knew the alternative, and just losing their job was a better thing to believe than the alternative. Being able to work here despite his record was just another example of WWW’s power in this modern age.

**BEASTMAN.EXE LOGGING INTO YOKA ZOO NET 1** |GRRRR, Update complete, Master.| It was thanks to them that his Navi BeastMan was the powerhouse that he was. Originally Inukai just colored a generic ¥5000 Navi orange and yellow, called him BeastMan, and strutted around like he was the coolest shit because he was the only person around who had a Navi, back when they were a luxury for non military. Now, BeastMan was a true monster worthy of his name. |Downloading the data to the PET now.| The guttural undertone that permeated every sound he made made it seem as though he was constantly snarling, and his appearance belied and at the same time sold how dangerous he truly was. 

To say BeastMan was lankier than most NetNavis would be like saying the grass is green. Most store-brand Navis had limbs that were just twigs, and BeastMan’s were barely meatier than theirs. Not that that was a problem; BeastMan’s true power lay on the inside and in the brown armor and mask he wore. The gauntlets were the thickest part of his body, a bright candy corn yellow with octagonal rings where the claws were stored in at the base. There were six vents on each ring, and the 4-foot-long silver claws he usually had were replaced with white, gloved, tiny human hands, holding thick stacks of paper that represented his report. A black void with a large, fanged mask composed his head, giving him his bestial appearance similar to that of the smilodon. His legs were modeled after the hind legs of a predator. Orange knee guards were fused to his skin, with thin armor from the knee down, and thick, rounded armor at the top with a tip at the left side of the left leg and vice versa, and thick silver claws jutting from his feet. Combined with BeastMan’s default and only standing position, it made him look constantly hunched over, ready to attack.

Sitting in his mind controlled lion chair Inukai smirked as he read over the data. “Good. And the upload speed?”

|50 Megabits per second.| The Navi snarled. |That’s about as good as we’re getting in the sticks. If I overclock the system anymore, SciLab and the Urakawa family will surely find out.|

“I forgot all about them too!” He took a short look at the stacks of completed paperwork on his desk in disgust before looking back to the screen. “I’ve had to organize the itineraries and legal papers for over 20 schools visiting this month alone!”

|Grrrr, You remembered to push ACDC Elementary to the top of the list, right?|

“Yeah, first thing I did too. MegaMan and his NetOp’s class will be here on the 5th of next month, just in time for us to finalize and commence Operation Outbreak.”

|Gooood. I’ve also began private testing on the chip’s control frequency for the smarter animals. If all goes well, the monkeys should be hiding some spending money for you to conveniently find during your next inspection.|

“...Do the Urakawas suspect anything?”

BeastMan shook his head. |They’re still in the dark. I’ve altered the programming on the chips to prevent them from accidentally going into 

|Understood Master.| **BEASTMAN.EXE LOGGING OUT OF YOKA ZOO NET 1.**

Inukai’s thoughts went back to the animals. Six weeks it took for him to get those microchips embedded into their brains, and by the time MegaMan and the Hikari kid came to the YokaYoka Zoo, him and his class would be nothing but animal crap on the side of the road, as would the rest of this hick town.

But first, he had to catch up on the development of their third ace in the hole. They had Bass, they Piruluk to reign Bass in, now they just needed to finish up this bit of work, and they’d finally have a Navi -they could trust- powerful enough to hold the TetraCode.

* * *

  
  


**_Undernet Area 6, 02:36_ **

**_??? Market._ **

“Oh shit she’s back- Heeeey LuckyRucky! How’s my favorite customer doing? That cloak is doing wonders for you!”

Piruluk ignored the poor attempt at brownnosing. “The usual. One passcode to the Beach Street Hospital’s network.

“Alright alright, that’ll be ¥80,00. they’ve upgraded their security since you went there last, so if you don’t have the money-” She had the money. She _always_ had the damn money. And now it was in his private account. “H-here you go.”

“Thank you.”

The poor salesman watched her leave, waiting until she logged out of the area before he let out a loud whistle. “The crazy chick’s gone, back to business!” Sighs of relief could be heard as both shopkeepers and patrons happily went back along their merry way. Amongst the UnderNet residents with human operators, LuckyRucky was at least the 3rd worst person you’d want to run into. That Blue Twerp and ProtoMan, they’d just delete you, but that bitch? Deny her those hospital visits, and she’d find you in the real world. She’d always find you, and that made her the most dangerous Navi here. Next to S or that Bass guy, but no one liked to think about those terrors.

  
  


* * *

**SciLab North, 02:55**

**Office 1-A**

SciLab North, or SciLab Hokkaido, usually spelt the end of one’s career if you were sent there. It didn’t have it’s on section of a metropolis to call it’s own like SciLab DenTech, or it’s own private artificial island like SciLab Colorado, it was just some dinky office building in the middle of the nearly desolate town of Yubari, barely worthy to bear the name SciLab. It had the same level of tech as the other branches, but had a lot more restrictions and was on a cordoned off section of the internet, with a lock that required a strict approval process to access. You’d have to be incredibly stupid to bypass the security system, brave to risk your scientific career for something so fullish….

“Good job FlameMan!” Or in the case of one Ken'ichi ‘Mr.Match’ Hino, be an excellent programmer backed and taught by one of the greatest minds of the modern era. “And were you detected?” Huddled over his cubicle’s computer screen with a special soundproofing device blocking his loud declarations of his evil plans, Mr.Match let out a laugh as his Navi gave the A-OK on the PET screen. “Aye Aye, that’s a good matchstick you are. Slipped right in and right out without the little screamers knowin’!”

|Wraaah...Wraaah…| Surprisingly inhuman with a huge pyre for a body, FlameMan was one of the odder Navis that you could find, and the result of wanting to make the most inconveniently shaped Navi be the strongest Fire Elemental on the net. He was a quadruped, standing on four haunched limbs much like a gorilla, said limbs were made of thin cables that passed through four metal rings in the arms and three in the legs, ending in orange hands and feet respectively. His head was an orange mask, with the fire insignia Match was so proud of displayed proudly on his chest. Months of testing and battling against Piruluk and Urith made FlameMan the most powerful Navi in WWW who could stand up to an LRIG! If MegaMan wasn’t slaughtered by the two girls, then FlameMan was going to annihilate him...If Saiko or Inukai didn’t get him in the real world, that is. |Wraaah?|

“Nah, haven’t heard a lick out of her since the last meetin’. Wily and Mayu must’ve been pretty angry for jumping the gun with MegaMan in a public area. We got some theories on how his program works with the WIXOSS engine, but it ain’t enough to gon.” Honestly, it was obvious to anyone with a brain that MegaMan would get involved with that game. Three times now Lan and his Navi saved the world from societal and economic collapse, stopped multiple terrorist plots, and let’s not forget surviving the Cyber Chernobyl that was Kotobuki _completely unscathed,_ of course the two twits were going to find out before the WIXOSS program moved out of the early access phase. “Just a few more weeks and we can bring the game out into the public eye. Oh that’s gonna be a good bit of entertainment, it is!”

|Wraaahh…|

“Oh we’ll be seeing Lanny boy _very_ soon.” But not yet: He just had a job to do first. Saiko was handling the AI’s security protocols using FlashMan’s high resistance to status effects, Inukai was in charge of the battle protocols using BeastMan’s speed as a base for the attacking capabilities, and he was handling the installation of the Breaking Element. DrillMan.EXE was right now, a wimp. A very annoying wimp with a _ridiculously_ annoying gimmick, like his ‘cousin’ BubbleBastard, but one that could be used and exploited in so many wonderful ways under the hands of a competent programmer. Once he finished DrillMan’s upgrades, he would only have three months of work ahead of him. _‘Three months…’_ Three months of tedium that he didn’t need to do to get into WWW initially, but man oh man he wanted to show up that chip loving, glasses wearing otaku so bad, and Lord Wily forbade anyone from beating each other up in the real world. This work they were giving him here? He was pretty sure Lan could do it! He was in ACDC Academy after all, idiots there were towered even some adults in terms of intelligence! No matter though; in three months, none of this would matter. SciLab would be taken out in a sea of **_glorious flames,_ **and Lan? Well...let’s just say there were a lot of ways to crush a child’s spirit without laying a hand on them.

* * *

  
  


**Skull Island, 03:30**

DrillMan’s modifications were coming along smoothly. Soon they’d be ready to move up to the WIXOSS integration into his programming, but Wily could worry about that later; for now…

“Nononoonono! You’re still Level 1! You can’t put that many LRIGs there! And get those SIGNI out of the Ener Zone!” ...Playing this absurd game with his daughter.

“Fine, I’ll put them back. I place the half-naked green hedgeho-”

“Her name is Midoriko! And you _grow_ her!”

“...I grow _Midoriko_ into Midoriko Combat Girl Type one!” Why didn’t he just learn this game when Mayu was a human girl? Thomas was the one who fed her and took care of her and helped change her diapers -she was too weak even for _that-_ so why did she gravitate to him? “So is this other girl an LRIG?”

“NO!” Mayu screamed. “Jeez, daddy, it’s a SIGNI! A _SIGNI!”_ All she received in return was a blank, one-eyed stare. “I told you that you should’ve learned the game with that fat idiot, but nooooo! You just had to-”

**_{Incoming call from U-1. Marked: Urgent}_ **

Upon hearing that, Wily immediately covered his ears. “OOOOH!” And with his ears still covered, he just let Mayu lift him up and hug him while shouting ‘she’s here she’s here!’ at least six times before letting him go and turning on the holo-screen. “URITH!”

|Yeah yeah yeah, keep your pants on.| 13 years old like Piruluk back when she was human, Urith was Mayu’s 2nd favorite. She was paler than Mayu, almost chalk white, with short white hair that resembled a bowlcut. Her clothing was minimal, but fortunately for Wily’s eyes, it had a degree of sense. You couldn’t tell where her skin ended and her clothes began, but at least it was modest! She wore full body tights, white on the torso with purple on the leggings with diamond patterns exposing her knees. For footwear, she wore light purple shoes and white gloves, both of which appeared as something a human would wear. Lastly, she wore sports light purple bandage wrappings on her right wrist and on her head, tied as though they were ribbons. |You two are in high spirits.| 

“Well _I_ am!” Mayu replied with a blush, floating around Wily’s head. “ But he’s not! He still doesn’t get what a SIGNI and an ARTS are, can you believe that?!”

|Aren’t you supposed to be a genius?|

“Yes, I am. And I like familiarity. What was wrong with calling the damn things Giga, Mega, or Standard cards?”

“Because they’re WIXOSS cards!”

|It’s not that hard to understand!| Urith said with the widest grin she could manage

“I have no need and have very little desire to do so.” Wily answered with an air of finality. “Implementing this card game into the CyberWorld, sealing up that room, I barely want to see this game again.” As a response, Mayu sat on his bald head. “Of course… what do you have to report?”

**_TetraCode Upload in progress. (Packet 1 of 444) Size: 66EB_ **

The dropped jaws of Wily and her bestie made Urith laugh out loud. |Yep! Snuck it out of this hospital on the beachside without anyone knowing! These people have the combined brainpower of a newt!|

“Why do you think I hate them so…?” Wily glowered. “Regardless, good work. Once DrillMan is complete, you’ll have your shot at Bass again.”

| **I’d better….** | That stupid, cloak wearing edgelord had been a thorn in her’s and Piruluk’s sides for far too long, a weakling Navi who had the power to stand up to an LRIG, no modifiers, no cheating. And the fact that Piruluk was the only one who could even handle him, when she could _easily_ beat her at Level 0 alone, was insulting! |Mayu, I’m not in a good mood right now. Selector battle please.|

“Already sent to your PET!” The ghostly girl said cheerfully. “I even set up a time and place for six battles tomorrow during Iona’s lunch break!” She let out a giggle. “Y-you should’ve seen their faces! They get to meet their idol and get their dreams crushed!”

|Oh, they’re all on their last lives?!|

“Every single one!”

|Oh, I could just hug you if it didn’t make me physically sick to my stomach!| Her cheerfulness reminded her of way too many forum boards her mom used to send her to in order to ‘fix her’, only Mayu’s happy was disgustingly genuine. |Oh, and Albert?|

“....”

|Fine fine, _Lord Wily._ How’s my little blue pet?| 

The mood dropped instantly from that question, Mayu floating away nervously from Wily in shame as the doctor answered. “He can participate in WIXOSS fights.” The grin on Urith’s face after hearing was something that should not be on a child. “In addition, he can harm LRIGs, and can induce status effects it seems. He only inflicted paralysis on Piruluk, but given his and Lan’s track record with things beyond their understanding, it’s safe to say they can induce all status effects and exploit elemental weaknesses.

|....| Oh joy, she was breathing heavily. |S-so he can fight huh? I knew he had potential!| Being a Black LRIG, she was immune to all status effects and potential elemental weaknesses. There were only a few BattleChips capable of putting the hurt on her. Nearly all of them were with Wily, two in SciLab’s care, one with Wily’s unfavorite son, and the last one, that was with….him. 

“Stop drooling and get over that blue brat!” Wily ordered. “And don’t even try to sway him! I’ve lived long enough to see people as screwed up as you be able to hide their psychosis with the ease of a chameleon’s camouflage. He has a moral compass as big as his foolish grandfather Urith, and you’re about as subtle with your psychopathy as Piruluk’s Selector. He won’t be swayed by your words.”

|Ah, but you forget, _Lord Wily-_ | She got a growl from the man in return. |I’m also a _sociopath._ We’re great at hiding our emotions!| And Urith proved it right then and there. Her face softened, her eyebrows smoothed out, and she put her hands behind her back while sitting down, kicking her feet as though she was splashing water. |How do you think I get those nice girls to fight me?| She asked, her tone and posture that of a young girl her age. |Iona Urazoe, famous idol who ended the tyranny of the evil ‘Lucky Aki’, offering to lose the chance to gain her wish to make a poor young girl happy? Why, that’s just the saddest thing you ever heard!|....Wily and Mayu just stared at her deadpan. “Grrr…| Urith floated back upright, a snarl on her face. |Look, his NetOp’s a nimrod, I just gain his trust, and MegaMan has no choice but to put up with me.|

“You really seem to like him a lot.” Mayu, a frown on her face. 

|I guess?| Urith shrugged. |I wanna stab him, filet him, want him to do the same to me. I’ve met people a lot more fucked up than either me, him, or anyone in this room, but someone like an LRIG, and one younger than me?|

“Hey, I’m nuts, and I’m younger than you!”

|You’re in your 40’s kid.|Hmmm...She had to think on this one.|Iona’s got a shoot, to go to.|

The chat ended, the screen blipped out of existence. Mayu made a move to apologize once more, but Wily held out a hand to stop her. “It was only a matter of time before MegaMan got involved, don’t worry.” Thomas and his ilk, they always managed to ruin his plans, _always._ No reason to blame her for his own bad luck.

* * *

  
  


**Beach Street Hospital, 3:55**

**Room 22-A**

The lights were dimmed, the rays of the moon shining through the curtain covered windows. There were no IV tubes connected to her, no mask over her mouth and nose, nor was she sleeping. The patient was 17 years old, her hair a dark brown and cut short, breathing softly as she conversed with the Navi on her hospital bed’s PET screen. “-And then Mamoru-chan said that the jerk tried to buy him off with the same software they stole from him!”

|And the Navi was a civilian model?|

“Y-yep!” The girl could barely hold in her laughter, keeping quiet as much as she could to prevent the nurses from coming in to check on her. “And the guy just ran off from Mamoru, sweet old Mamo-chan, like he was actually scary! Can you believe it?!”

|...I can believe it.| Oh how she could believe it. |He probably belonged to some hotshot teenager who thought they could make a quick buck off a sick child.| 

“Oh those jerks are everywhere b-but-” The girl only barely managed to hold in her giggling. “I-It’s Mamo-chan!”

|Yes, Ayumi, I understand.| Piruluk said with a small, rare smile. Oh if she only knew who that boy was. _‘And why you’re safest here with him around.’_ And speaking of safety… |By the way…your room records tell me that that famous idol you liked so much came by.|

“Yeah, Iona, the dark blade!” Ayumi whispered when she heard footsteps outside, with all the bravado of a TV announcer. “And she was soooo cool!”

|She sure is….and what about her Navi?|

“She is the _coolest!_ She-” A knock on the door caused her heart to nearly skip a beat. “She’s so mean, but mean in a cool way! She’s got a style to her that makes me super super jealous!”

|Yes...she’s quite...something.| Though her presence was less disgusting to her than that granola cruncher ganguro girl, the ease in which Urith got into the hospital’s network was disgusting. |How are you feeling?|  
  
“Better than ever!” Ayumi said with a grin, pointing to her back. “Soon I won’t need these stupid things in my spine, and I’ll be able to move in a few months!” For the first time in a while, she saw her friend’s stoic frown curve slightly. “Was that a smile I saw Kiyo-” And immediately, the brunette knew she messed up, the temperature in the room literally going cold just so very slightly, enough that you’d think you were imagining the temperature shift. “W-wait, don’t go! I-” And before she could say anything else, Pirulk was already gone. “Ohhhh…” Grimacing, Ayumi sat back in her bed, looking out the window of her room. “You messed up big time…” Sleep soon took her, unpleasant thoughts going through her mind of a certain ‘friend’ coming to visit in the morning, just like she always did.

* * *

  
  


**DOWNTOWN DENTECH**

**MURASAKI WARD, 6:22**

**AKIRA AOI’S HOUSE.**

Akira’s fall from grace didn’t do her any favors for her financial situation. Her own terrible choices when dealing with her various managers screwed her over more than once, and as a result her own cut of the profits amounted to what was the equivalent of a weekly allowance. A child’s weekly allowance that they’d get for keeping their room cleaned. From her first gig to her first Selector Battle all those years ago, to her current gig today, her situation had not changed. She started living in shit and continued living in shit.

At least she got a house back when she was 16 for her and the bitch she called her mom to move in to, a gift from a very rabid fan that was thankfully in jail. She should’ve listened to Piruluk when she signed the papers to get the place because it was just _five minutes_ **_away from her own FUCKING HOUSE!_ **

A one story flat that had been raided six times over 3 years, which did _wonders_ for the shattered remains of her reputation, and a roach problem that was curbed by a ‘friend’ of Piruluk who the LRIG refused to divulge the identity of, the sheer insult of being conned out of the better life she deserved turned Akira into an even more toxic ball of love and sunshine! Luckily for ~~everyone in her neighborhood~~ her, this would be the last time she’d ever see them. In just one hour and five minutes, she’d be back at the standards that would let her get away from these damn hicks!

“Akira, did you clean the toilet yet?!”

“I did it already you stupid bitch!” And far, _far_ away from the sad sack of crap whose cooch she popped out of. “I did your dirty work, now give me my damn PET!” The worn out burlap sack walked into the hallway and stared her down. “Come on, I did what you asked, now give my back my Navi!”

"Sure." A moment later, Akira regretted her choice of words not for the last time, as her very outdated model hit her in the face, the woman having missed her throw. As she recoiled and started yelling obscenities from the pain, Akira missed her pained, miserable expression, made worse as she slammed the door on her face. She had no idea why that woman even bothered to pretend she cared at this point, after years of this behavior.

As the very loved ginger stormed out of the house, everyone around her giving her a wide berth, a man whose clothes made him look like someone trying really hard to look like a stereotypical hobo eyed her as he bought out a Model 1 PET in the same vein as Akira’s, only the screen was cracked, with various blobs of gue keeping the device together. With a speed found only in the swiftest of pickpockets, he began typing. | **Mister Sunayama, the target is headed for the train station.|**

**|Excellent job! Her mom put on quite the convincing performance huh?|**

**|I don’t think that was as much of a performance as you think.|** He could hear the woman celebrating from out here! **|The payment has been cleared by her bank, and by tomorrow, she’ll be a very wealthy woman.|**

**|As she should! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a very grouchy young lady to meet! Ciao!|**

* * *

**WESTERN DENTCH, MURASAKI WARD, 6:33**

**DenLine Green, Bus 12**

_“Oh god it’s that crazy chick again.”_

_“The one from the roach commercials?”_

_“Yeah, the one with the hot Aqua Navi.”_

_‘Ignore them Akira, just ignore them!’_ Akira muttered from the back of the vehicle, clutching her PET as hard as she could. Oh how her years of being a nosy little girl were biting her in the ass, her trained ears hearing every insult and jeer.

_“How did she even get out of juvie?”_

_“Beats me, but she should’ve stayed in there.”_

“Grrr…” Akira gritted her teeth. “Damn you...damn you Iona….!” As she stewed in her own self made misery, the bus came to a screeching halt, causing Akira to lurch out of her seat and onto the floor with a scream as her PET dropped onto the ground.

|I told you to put on your seatbelt.|

“Shut the fuck up…” The ginger said to her LRIG as she picked up the device and stormed to the bus driver, who suddenly realized who his passenger was. “What the hell is your deal?”

Oh god it was _her._ “Someone or something got in the way?” The driver responded as patronizingly as possible. “I mean, you can look out the window if you like, there’s nothing stopping you.”

Growling, Akira did just that, eyes widening as she saw a limo on the wrong side of the road, it’s front end facing the bus. “What the hell…?” A beeping from her PET caused her to bring the device up. “What?!”

|You have an Email.| Piruluk said as she opened the file.

“Come outside?” Akira muttered. It was only two words, that was it. But the Email address was what got her confused. “That’s DNN’s Email address…” Looking out the window again, she was surprised to see a man in a very fancy suit looking straight at her and motioning for her to come on out. Shocked, Akira pointed to herself, causing the man to nod enthusiastically. “...” Akira said nothing and promptly pocketed her PET. She walked to the bus door next to her, and with strength that shouldn’t be possible for a girl with her -lack of- diet, pushed it open so hard that the glass cracked. Still keeping eerily quiet and ignoring the shock and the screams of the bus driver, she quickly walked to the man and stared at him for a good five seconds. “What do you want?”

“Uh…” Well, this was odd; it certainly didn’t fit her profile. “Akira Aoi right?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“You..uh…” The man took a second to let out a cough and regain his bearings. “You’ve been selected to participate in the upcoming N1 Grand Prix as a special guest.”

“I see.”

Again with the cordial tone! “Y-your NetBattling record shows you qualify to be a SLicensed NetBattler, which of course means that you will be paid for every successful task given to you.”...She should be ecstatic about this given her financial situation. “So starting today, you will-where are you going?!”

“Back on the bus, where else?” Akira answered, turning to give the man a very hateful, subdued glare. “That bitch Iona put you up to this, didn’t she?”

“M-miss Urazoe is participating yes, but-”

“Then the answer’s no. I’m not accepting anything _she’s_ offering me.”

“But aren’t you a Selector?!” _That_ got Akira to stop. She turned to him, shock written on her face. “Just like Miss Urazoe right?”

“...”

“I know all about the battles. If you want to know more, as well as get a ride to your school with pay, I suggest you get inside.”

And against her better judgement, Akira did. When the man got inside, on the seat opposite hers, the limo began to move. This was a pretty swanky limo too. Martini bar, fridge on the ceiling, with a beautiful glass table in the middle of the floor. It was everything she ever wanted ever since becoming an idol, but she’d have to shelve that for later.“Alright, spill. How are you still breathing after saying that?”

“How can a NetNavi hurt an LRIG?” The man rebutted. “MegaMan is full of surprises.”

“Oh. that’s his name.” And of course he had the same naming scheme a lot of shmucks had. AirMan, TenguMan, she was pretty sure Piruluk deleted something named DickMan on the UnderNet, it’s like having ‘Man’ as part of your name was a symbol of power or something! “Still doesn’t answer my question. You know about Selector Battles. You talked about them in public. _How are you still alive?”_

“I’m not suffering from the curse because I am an administrator for the WIXOSS network.”

“...” Akira bought her PET out. “Piruluk, what the hell’s he talking about?”

|He’s speaking the truth.| Piruluk answered, unable to keep the shock out of her voice. |But why reveal yourself like this?| This had to be Sunayama’s doing, it just had to! |I haven’t received any information about the program moving out of the early access phase.|

“Oh?” The man in the suit raised a brow, taking a quick glance at Akira’s face. _‘So she doesn’t know about the plan.’_ Given her profile, it’d make sense Piruluk wouldn’t fill her in on WWW’s activities. “Well we’re having to do it earlier than we thought. A Selector got sloppy and now SciLab is investigating anything to do with WIXOSS.”

“WHAT?!” Both girls screamed, Akira slamming her hands on the table. “Why the fuck didn’t you idiots warn her?! Are those nerds gonna mess up my chance to be an Eternal Girl?!”

The man shook his head. “Relax. As far as they know, LRIGS are highly powerful Navis, nothing more. The specifics of the Eternal Girl Project and the WIXOSS System are under wraps, and the Selector and their LRIG were given _harsh_ reminders as to what would happen to them should they open their mouths again.”

Akira took a second to calm down, sitting back in her seat. “Good….so what does this have to do with me being in some NetBattling tournament? I don’t _do_ NetBattles.”

“You and your LRIG are the most hated duo on the WIXOSS network.” The man explained. “Alongside you and Piruluk, Miss Urazoe and Urith, Miss Kominato and Tama, and the Selector who goes by the name ‘Chorizo’ and her LRIG Eldora, you are the strongest WIXOSS players out there, and absolutely perfect for representing our brand!”

|I see...and do we need a password? I’ve heard rumors of such a thing on the public BBS boards at BeachSquare, and they were all for putting us in our place.|

“Oh rest assured, that won’t happen.” The man said with a confident chuckle. “But as they say, NetBattling is a two-man sport. It requires both NetBattler and Navi to be in perfect synch with each other to fight effectively.” He ignored the scoff from both of them and continued. “A NetNavi is far smarter than a human, able to think and react faster than our minds can handle. But the human element has to be in tip top shape to keep in synch with the Navi, able to fight anywhere, in any condition! So that is why, with your approval, you will be the spokesperson for Western Dentech!”

|Hm?| Piruluk raised a brow as the PET beeped. _‘Mail now?’_ ID DNN, but the money was from one of Wily’s aliases if the hidden code in the ID was correct. ¥44,000 for the first gig alone. Impre-| She and the man winced at Akira’s scream. |-ssive.|

“What the shit is this?!” Akira’s smile couldn’t get any bigger even if she tried. “I never got this much even when I was in my prime?!”

“...What?” Given the deals she had and all the money that flowed in, she should have gotten s _ix times_ as much! “I-I see…” Just how bad was this girl with money?! “Anyway, once you get settled in to your new school life, you will be notified about your sched-”

“Yeah whatever. Get good grades, best behavior, and I get money and the chance to kick Iona’s ass?”

“Just keep your grades up and don’t do anything that constitutes a felony. That’s it.”

“Ok I’m in! Where do I sign?!”

“The contract will be mailed to your PET by tomorrow. This will be an excellent business venture Miss Aoi, that I assure you.”

“Oh I bet it will be!”

“You and Miss Urazoe will face off on the global stage, in front of millions of people.”

“Oooh yeeeeaah…”

“And if you win, you will be heralded and cheered, instead of reviled and mocked.”

“Oh, that sounds so good!” And all that money, all for her!

“We even managed to cover up the fact you’re in ACDC Academy’s Elementary school course. _That’s_ how serious we are about having you in on this!”

...The resulting silence and Akira’s dropped jaw and bulging eyes was the most hilarious thing Piruluk had ever seen? |Oh, did I forget to tell you? Oops.|

  
  



	4. School Days part 1: Akira Aoi's really bad day

_**ACDC Town, 6:55**_

 _ **Hikari Homepage**_

MegaMan was an oddity to the Mr.Progs that managed the Hikari home network, and had been since their installation.

There were plenty of Navis that touted human characteristics, and both they and him often spent hours deleting spam email from UnderNet servers on Navis who displayed characteristics humans would find disgusting, but MegaMan’s human characteristics were too natural to be preprogrammed or installed.

“ZZZZZZ…” He snored. He slept. _He slept!_ And it wasn’t like him just going into a sleeping animation while most Navis did as they shut down, he slept like a human while his processes remained on standby! Even now, he showed his strange human programming sleeping on the floor of the Homepage, as Mr.Prog that delivered his daily mail stared in awe at what he was seeing.

“MR.MEGAMAN, WAKE UP!”

“Gaaah!” MegaMan rolled and quickly got up and into a combat stance, lowering his arms when he saw it was just the Mail Prog. “Oh, morning already?” He asked with a yawn.

“YESSIR! HERE’S YOUR MAIL!”

“Uh-huh…” MegaMan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he received confirmation of the Email loaded onto his PET. “Thanks...I’m gonna lay down now.”

“BUT MR.MEGAMAN, YOU CAN’T!” The Mail Prog explained. “MR.HIKARI HAS SCHOOL TODAY!” Wow, he even had those red eyes that humans got when they didn’t get enough sleep! His eyes were bulging just like them and everything! He was so advanced!

* * *

A messy bed, toys and clothes strewn about on the floor, and sports posters everywhere. Let it be said that despite his many achievements, Lan Hikari was still the same boy he always was.

|LAAAAAAAN! Wake up!| And that includes a very poor sleep schedule. |LAAAAAN!|

“Mmmm?” The boy in question mumbled, taking his blanket off of himself and lifting his head up. “Morning already?”

|Yes, ‘morning already!’ You’ve got morning detention, remember?| From his PET screen, MegaMan counted down as his brother’s brain turned on, drowsiness slowly giving way to an intense dread.

“SHOOT!” He had to get his clothes on, _stat!_

* * *

Five minutes later Lan was in his favorite clothes and out the door, pressing on the backs of his shoes to activate the built in skates to get to school faster. He could see the bell tower of his school in the distance, just down the hill and a steep incline of stairs with two railings on the side. “We’re gonna do this Tony Hawk style!

|Don’t you dare!| MegaMan shouted from Lan’s pocket as Lan jumped into the air

“Sorry, can’t hear you!” with precision that would make a sharpshooter jealous, the wheels of Lan’s skates landed perfectly on the railing, and he flawlessly skated down the railing, jumping from one side to the other even as the path curved and bent., through the park, over a lake, up and down the hills. “WOOOHOOO!” The people taking the _automatic walkway_ just to the right either stared in shock or just ignored him; the boy was as durable as he was reckless, so it wasn’t worth the time to worry about a tragedy that wouldn’t happen.

Normally the walkway, usually made for people who just wanted to walk -ACDC was rich like that despite being in the burbs- would have taken him 42 minutes to get to the bottom, but thanks to his mad skills, it only took him 12. “And here we are!” Lan jumped off the last inch of railing and onto the concrete ground, spinning to lower his momentum as he landed flawlessly. “That. was. AWESOME!”

|I-is it over?|

“Yep! I oughtta take that nature trail more often!”

|Please _don’t.._ |Oh why didn’t he disable the gyroscopic sensors?!

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 7:33  
Front Gates**

“Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Aoi!”

“I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna kill you..” Was what the now black haired former idol said as she got out the limo, staring at her PET with all the hate she could muster as she stood at the front gates of her new school/home. She was silent after the bombshell, so cold with rage that it left the man ample time to put on her disguise so she wouldn’t be hounded by the brats no doubt ready to mock her for her failures. Gone were the orange locks that made her the envy of so many. Gone was her fair, white skin that she made sure to keep as perfect as possible even to this day, and the clothes from the thrift store she managed to find that didn’t make her itch. Now she wore orange jeans, a short sleeved shirt with white highlights, and some third rate slip resistant boots. There wasn’t even any retailer information on the clothes, so these were just some third rate hand-me-downs! “You **bitch**.”

|Did you really think that your actions during your early days as a Selector would _only_ affect your reputation, and nothing else?| Piruluk asked in her monotone voice as the limo drove off. Getting her Selector in this mess was the only time she and Iona ever enjoyed each other’s presence. |It’s amazing that you were even allowed to enter given your grades and performance, so be grateful.| And she should also be thankful that Ulith didn’t have a hand in selecting the clothes she was wearing, and Piruluk was very tempted to let her do it.

“I am going to be an _adult_ in a couple months-”

|-Keep telling yourself that.|

“-And you expect me to be in the same class as a bunch of goddamn _brats?!_ ” A small dinging sound, similar to a coin being dropped in a jar, came from her PET. “The hell was that?” The same sound played again.

|A digital swear jar. | Piruluk explained. |It came installed with your school registration programs, and if it gets full you will receive a week’s worth of detention.| Akira’s face turned blue from fear. These academies, the not too rich not too poor ones, were _infamous_ for what they called detention. |This also means that you will have to watch how you act when on the job as well.|

“Yeah, I know _that._ ” Akira looked up at the school gates with trepidation. “So, here it is...ACDC Academy…” It was so _big,_ not like those anime schools where it was it’s own damn city, but like one of those fancy boarding schools. She recognized the gate type: L-Class, two poles on each side. It looks as though you can go through without any trouble, but an Energen field produced by the poles would harmlessly knock you back if you tried to do so without permission. “S-so I just gotta hold my PET up to the gate right?”

|Correct.| Akira did just that. Piruluk opened the required folders as an infrared beam was shot at the PET screen. Four beeps came from the device, followed by a small, fading hum from the poles. |The energy field is disabled.|

Ready to get this over with, Akira walked through the gate, only barely missing some punk kid in a stupid orange life jacket and shorts skating past her with an ‘I’m sorry lady!’ as he disappeared into the main foyer. “Oh I’m gonna _hate_ this place…”

_3 minutes later...._

Well, this was underwhelming

Akira expected some high tech futuristic stuff given this place’s reputation, but the entrance hall looked no different from any other middle of the road academy she promoted back when she was starting out. Two more sets of security poles were in place at both ends of the hallway, and from their make, she assumed them to be PET Security Scanners. “Mrmmm..” She took out her PET and then looked at the poles. “Will it let me through?”

|Yes. The information packet informed me as to what software version is required for entry into the school. The software on this PET is out of date, but special permissions have been made for your unique situation.|

Oh. _Charity._ “Alright then..” Akira plugged her ears with her fingers and tiptoed towards the gate. almost...almost…..almost….”It didn’t go off.” She said with a sigh of relief.

|I told you it wouldn’t.| Akira Continued walking, coming across an elevator to the right. |Get on the elevator and go to the 2nd floor, class 5-A| As the elevator began to move, the PET beeped, the tone letting the girls know an Email was just sent to the device.

“Eh it’s probably that Adbot from last night or whatever.” Akira said as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “Just delete it.”

|Very well then.| Piruluk responded as she opened the Email.

 _ **To:** Piruluk.EXE.  
 **From:** Lord M  
 **Sent:** Monday, 7:35  
 **Subject:** Do not Engage!_

 _‘What in the world?’_ Ignoring the fact Wily let Mayu have an Email address, what was she doing contacting her?

 _So daddy issued a super big order while you were offline. He says that no LRIGs are gonna fight MegaMan. If you wanna do it, use your Navi forms. If you gotta go LuckyRucky against him, you have permission to use that Growth Path to it’s full power._

 _Thats all. Bye!_

So Mayu and Wily’s control over the system still wasn’t perfect. _‘They’re right; he can’t face another LRIG.’_ The fact he was even able to have the system accept him as an LRIG was bad enough. The fact he could even hurt her with BattleChips was even worse. But if he received a WIXOSS deck from the system or worse yet, that girl in white, then WWW’s plans would go up in smoke. _‘We’re going to be in the same class though.’_ The thought of paying him back for the humiliation last night made Piruluk feel a connection to her Selector, loathed as she was to admit it, but the problem with Akira’s attitude and mouth meant that she might be forced to leave. And if Akira wasn’t Operating her, then a good chunk of her power in her Navi form was lost. _‘What did Wily call it again? ‘Full Synchro?’_ Such a miserable compromise for LRIGs when in their Navi forms.

 **PIRULUK.EXE LOGGED INTO ACDC CLASS NET 2-A**

A gate opened in front of Piruluk, indicating that Akira placed the PET into the desk’s system. Walking into it, she found herself in a typical classroom, with a Cyberworld twist. There was no floor, only a border of where the floor would be, starting from the Warp Gate she appeared from. The borders of the room were shaped like #2 pencils, all of them alternating colors in such a way that it looked as though they were snaking their way around the room. Holo-screens were situated above the 22 student desks, with a blue arrow icon above one at the bottom right. Seeing as how there were no other Navis in the room, that must be hers. _‘I’ll have to edit that note later.’’_ If for any reason Akira got curious, all she’d have to do was say that the administrators deemed MegaMan too dangerous to the Eternal Girl Project, and that would be that. But if for any reason this school’s network caught the Email before it was sent to the PET… she shook her head as she walked to her desk and sat down. _‘No, impossible. Even with the security here, it wouldn’t be able to detect any communications from the WIXOSS System.’_ But then again the security here was made by both Wily and Hikari, with the latter contributing far more than the former. If only Mayu had control of that damned room, getting the TetraCode would be child’s play for WWW.

{The time now is 7:38. Class will begin in 1 hour and 22 minutes. All students and student Navis please get ready for class.}

Piruluk let out a sigh. “Lan…” Just how was this reunion going to go?

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 7:45  
Utility Room 4**

For Lan, degreasing the floors was one of the worst punishments you give him, next to toilet cleaning and or writing out how what he did was wrong for hours on end. |Almost there Lan!| He heard MegaMan yell from the stool he left him on, as he was just about done with this stupid job. |I’ve gotta say, you’re this! Maybe you ought to be a janitor when you grow up instead of a scientist!|

“Shut. UP!” Urghh, why was this stuff so _thick?!_

|I told you that sneaking those pics was a terrible idea!|

“But they were rare pics MegaMan! Soccer _legends!_ ”

|That was from a live action version of Inazuma 11 Lan, _it wasn’t real!_ And all those hot girls you and Dex were ogling? They were BOYS!|

“I refuse to believe that!”

|Well you’re an-| The Navi’s eyes widened. |Quiet! Ms. Mari’s coming|

After uttering a quiet thanks for having MegaMan hack the cameras, Lan straightened his posture and turned to the door, putting on the biggest smile on his face as Mariko Ozono, his teacher, came in, eyes slightly unfocused as she let out a loud yawn. “Good morning.” She mumbled, staring at Lan with a slightly hunched posture. “Oh...you...actually did a good job here.” She couldn’t see or feel that rubbery white film that had until recently coated the floor! “I’m impressed!”

“Of _course_ I did a good job!” Lan said with confidence, flashing his teacher a smirk. “I just can’t believe you’re so surprised.”

|Well can you blame her?|

“MegaMan’s right.” Then again Lan’s proficiency shot up drastically when he was in or trying to get _out_ of trouble. “Though with how well you cleaned up in here, maybe you’re better off as a janitor than a scientist.” Ah, those little twitches of anger from him always brought a smile to her face! “I expected you to take at least two weeks, but since you took only a few hours, I guess I have no choice but to waive the rest of your punishment!”

“Thanks-”

“-And with your free time, you’ll have the time to finish up your workload!” Ms.Mari said with that cheerful smile that put her students on edge. “Oh six days of homework starting from when you and your friends got out the hospital to summer break!”

“...Oh…” **That**. Even Dex managed to finish it in time, _Dex!_

“And if you try to trick me again just to trade cards of androdgynous boys-” Lan opened his mouth but a glare from her slammed it shut. “...For Yen _instead_ of doing your schoolwork, not only will I put you back on cleaning duty for a _month,_ but you’ll be doing _Dex’s_ homework as well, understand?”

Lan looked away, sweat pouring from his face. “Y-yeah…”

“Good!” She turned to leave, sparing a glance towards her student’s PET on the chair. “Oh and MegaMan?”

|Y-yes?| Oh he did _not_ like that tone to her voice.

“Hack the surveillance network again and I’ll be informing Mr. Chaud and ProtoMan about your abuse of NetSaver privileges. Need I remind you that it’s this or your frequent, _non government_ related absences will go on your record?” She smiled, and held it for almost a minute as her students wondered just how in the world she knew that. “Bye-bye!” And then closed the door behind her to get ready for class to start.

Lan and MegaMan kept silent, fearing she might come back. “...Is she gone?”

|Yeah...and I’ve been locked out of the network.|

“Ok….” Another two minutes later, Lan let out a yell, throwing the push broom to the ground. “Stupid know it all teacher! Why does she have to be so strict?!”

|Strict?!| Oh his brother could be so spoiled sometimes! |Lan, she wouldn’t be so harsh if you actually did your homework _like I told you!|_

“Soccer. Legends! And they were the good cards, not the fake bootlegs they sell in UnderNet 4!”

|Really? And what’s their-| A beep from the PET interrupted their blooming argument. |Hold on, I’m getting a call. Putting it on speaker.| The two boys waited for the dial tone to play and then-

{STOP ARGUING ABOUT ME AND GET TO CLASS!}

“Y-yes Ms.Mari!”

|R-right mam!|

{Thank you! You’ll also have a new classmate in the room waiting for you! Go and say hello!}

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 7:40  
Class 2-A**

Holding his PET up to the card reader’s infrared scanner, Lan opened the door and found some weird older girl sleeping at Mayl’s desk. She looked pretty old, high school age, and she was kinda cute, though she looked familiar. She sure snored loudly. _‘Let’s see, my desk was…’_ Row 4, seat 2? Huh, just right next to her. Lan walked to his seat and sat into it, lifting up the PET port on his desk and placing his device into it before pulling the slot back down.

A tiny beep from the desk indicated that MegaMan was logged on to the class’s network, leaving ~~Lan to do his homework~~ talk to the new girl and see what her deal was. “Hello?” He said as softly as he could, barely above a whisper. The girl instantly shot up fully alert, wiping the drool off her face as her tired eyes focused on him. “H-hi…”

 _‘And so it begins.’_ This was her 2nd chance, so playing nice with the brats here was an inevitability. “Hiya! My name’s Mara Kumegiya, what’s yours?”

“Lan.” She didn’t sound so sure about saying her own name; her enthusiasm was way too fake, like a certain, currently incarcerated princess that was way too accurate with a pistol.“Lan Hikari.”

“LH?” Akira let out a small giggle, as vapidly as she could make it. “That’s funny. You’re funny!”

“Thanks! So uhh, you do know this is the elementary school class, right?” A hint of a snarl came on her face before the smile returned. “Aren’t you a little too old to be here?”

“Why yes! Yes I am!” Keep up the cheer Akira, don’t snap at him! “I’ve made a few no-nos in the past, so I’m here as punishment!” …. “Did I say something wrong?”

Lan nodded. “Look, I don’t know what you did to get in here, but Ms.Mari doesn’t mess around. If _I_ can tell you’re faking, and you are, you’re really bad at it, she _definitely_ will, and she looks at all our records to know what we’ve been up to. It really doesn’t bother me much, because me and her? We’re like friendly enemies, but with the way you’re acting-”

“Yeah yeah, I get your point.” Akira said with a groan, deepening her voice back to it’s normal pitch. “Goddamnit.” And there goes another ‘coin’ in the jar.

“Ooooh.” Lan winced. “Swear jar huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I figured.” Being put in elementary and with the swear jar? She must’ve messed up _bad._ “Looks like Dex won’t be the only one in class with one of those on his PET. Dex is my best bud by the way.”

“I see.” And now he was acting so familiar with her, how _lovely._ “Don’t you have homework to do or something?”

“Homework.” Lan raised a brow in confusion. “What do you-OH CRUD!” He quickly turned back to his desk and slid out the keyboard. In the second it took for him to do that, he pressed a button on the side, which activated the holo-screen for his desk that acted as a monitor, and logged in. “I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT!”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you.” Akira said as she laid back down. “Homework fucking sucks.” Another coin to the jar… “Don’t really like doing it myself.”

“Yeah, tell me about it!” Lan opened the folder with Ms. Mari’s smiling face on it titled ‘DO YOUR HOMEWORK OR ELSE!’ “First it was getting those soccer cards, then I had to set up my Akira Aoi fanpage, so I really didn’t have the time to waste on boring crud like that.”

“Hear hea-” Akira paused, paused for almost 12 seconds as her mind processed his sentence. “Did you say you have a fanpage to Akira Aoi?”

“Yep!” Lan said as he tried to focus on anything but the math problems in front of him. “She’s the best, way better than that creepy Iona chi-GAAH!” Why was this chick staring down at him?! “Y-yes?”

“Tell me everything you know about her, _now!_ ”

“Ok?!” Geez, she was _fast!_

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 8:15  
Class-2A Network**

Lan and his new friend were hitting it off it seemed, and the young boy was glad he found someone other than Dex to talk to about that loon. Now if only their classmate’s new Navi was as talkative. She was a really cute teeanger, and it was obvious that great care went into designing her. From all that blue on her, she looked to be an Aqua-Element Navi, though something in him was saying otherwise. Now if she could only stop looking at the holo-screen above her desk.

 _‘Just what is she staring at anyway?’_ He could easily go back into his PET, change into Shadow Style, then log back in using the Style’s Private Mode -because something was _seriously_ telling him to watch out for her- but after that trick Ms.Mari pulled, he wasn’t gonna risk a Style Change being logged to the school’s record for her to see. _‘Just a bit longer until class starts.’_ NetBattle practice was going to be pretty early today, and given how customized she looked, she’d probably give him as much of a challenge as Glyde...or LuckyRucky. _‘I really hope you won’t try anything Mayl.’_ Her _or_ Roll for that matter, because after what happened last time, he had no problem using his NetSaver authority to call SciLab about this ‘WIXOSS’ and ‘LRIG’ stuff. The time for worrying about them was over after what he witnessed.

Piruluk in the meantime was ignoring Lan’s Navi. Having already looked up the schedule for today, she could wait until 10:45 to see how she’d fare against him in her Level 0 form. Akira’s schedule was ready for her Selector to see and ignore, so now all Piruluk had to do until class started was reminisce. The image on the holo-screen wsa a rather blurry JPG, heavy artifacting making the image quality quite ugly. But it held a special place in her heart, one that she would never replace.

It was taken 5 years ago, back when she was human and Lan was around six. The picture itself was taken on a LeapFrog Jr. camera app, and it was of her before she met Ayumi, and back when she was still Kiyoi Mizushima, an antisocial 13 year old girl. She still had that gloomy look to her, but Lan didn’t care. He just sat right next to her as she held his hand, barely able to keep it together as this was the first picture with a friend she had ever taken.

“Wow, that’s actually kinda pathetic isn’t it?” Keeping her composure, Piruluk said nothing as an apparition of Mayu appeared in front of her. “Hiya!” Piruluk just stared at the screen. “Don’t worry, the blue guy can’t see me. It’s a new power I’m learning!” More staring. Mayu pouted. “Fiiine! Look, I only got like a minute or so left, so I’m just gonna keep it simple. Daddy’s really not happy with Sunayama, especially since he didn’t tell us about Ruko and Shiro, so the plan to get the TetraCode’s been moved up.” Piruluk’s eyes moved up slightly towards her. “He just wants an edge before Shiro and MegaMan meet up at the N1, or before you, Saiko or Inukai off him. Speaking of who, Saiko-”

Mayu’s form thankfully faded from existence, Piruluk barely able to keep her anger in.

* * *

“Isn’t that Iona just the worst?”

“I _know,_ right?!” Hearing that sent Akira’s heart aflutter. Finally, someone who knew how awesome she was, and knew what a bitch Iona was! “She doesn’t smile-” Unless under certain conditions. “-Can’t even talk like a normal person unless one of her braindead Ionadrones waves some BattleChips in front of her, and between you and me, I heard that her Navi’s way worse!”

Lan grimaced. “I know.” From day one, that Navi, Urith rubbed him the wrong way “I’ve seen her on the net once, and it was like-”

“Staring at a batshit-” Coin in the jar! “-insane loon?”

“Yeah! I think she actually liked all that crud with WWW and Gospel! She started saying how hot it was when WWW made all those cars-”

“-Nope!” Akira wasn’t opening the can of words that was _that_ LRIG’s psyche! “Sooo, why don’t we talk more about Aki-Lucky? I’m ga-ga over Aki-Lucky!”

“S-sure!” It was so nice to have someone to talk about her with! “People are always calling her bad names and saying she's a ‘bad influence’ and ‘not fit to be a model’, which is a lot of bunk!”

 _‘So this is what it feels like to feel a fan’s appreciation.’_ Oh it felt so good! She should squeeze some more praise out of this kid!

“Sure she screwed herself over, I mean I don’t blame the agency for dropping her after _that_ stunt-” Akira’s hands went into scratching position. “But I don’t blame her after what happened.”

“...” Something about the way he said that was interesting… “You uhh, mind explaining?”  
“Sure!” To Akira’s confusion, the kid began looking around as if he was worried someone might hear. “I got a certain friend of mine, a skunk haired guy, to look into the incident after the news dropped-”

* * *

_| I said no Lan.|_

 _|Come on Chaud, you owe me for that little stunt you pulled back in America! You seriously thought I was the traitor?!’|_

 _|...Fine. you’re helping beta test Proto Man’s new sword, got it?|_

* * *

“I’ve got some friends in high places, so it was a cinch for me to get that-GAH!” Why was she even closer?! “Uhmm..”

“Go on, tell me! TELL ME!”

“Uhhmm..uhmmm...-so it turns out the PET was bugged. A glitch in the transmission program let someone match the PET’s Optical Display ID to the surveillance camera’s ID in the area to link them up and- could you get out of my face?!”

“Sorry!” Akria backed away, a look of elation on her face. “And you can’t get the unedited footage right?”  
Lan shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Oh well!” At least someone knows the goddamn truth, and it was the same thing Piruluk explained to her! _‘That stupid LRIG of Iona’s probably used some WIXOSS magic to alter the footage!’_ There was no way the NetSavers would miss something like that crazy chick trying to knife her! Three losses and you’re out, that was the rule, but _nooooooo_ , the whiny little loser just had to throw a bitch fit! “Thank you, you’ve given me some much needed peace.”

“You’re welcome?” What just happened? “So uhhh..my name’s Lan?”

“You already said that.”

“Oh.” Jeez that was frightening! He’d never been this close to a girl before! His time in America didn’t count because this one wasn’t trying to fleece him out of his money or BattleChips! “We can talk more about Akira if you want.”

“Goodie!” Akira bought out her PET. “I got some exclusive photos of her I can give to you for free! Want them?”

“Do I?!” And talk they did. It wasn’t often that Lan had a longtime crush on someone -if he noticed he _had_ at all- but Akira Aoi had that feisty vicious attitude _and_ the Netbattling skills! That was like, two awesome things in one!

Akira was just happy to find someone who actually liked her, and believed her! Since he was in this academy, his GPA had to be at the tippy top of the upper percentile! She couldn’t remember the last time she even bothered going to school, so if she played her cards right with this fanboy, she may have just found her fast pass through this joint!

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 9:00  
Class-2A First Period**

“Alright everyone, take your seats!” Ms.Mari watched as her kids quieted down and sat in their chairs. All except one… “Where’s Mayl?” Small murmurs began to come from the students lips before she silenced them all. “Oh dear, this is going to be a mark on her record I’m afraid.” She ignored the gasps as she went to her desk and uploaded the day’s lesson plan to everyone’s desk. “Open up the Pre-Net History app and CTRL F to page-” A hand rose in the air. “Yes, Mr Ooyama?”

“Uhh Ms. Mari?” Now Dex Ooyama was what some people would call a bit chubby. ~~His classmates~~ less kind people would refer to him as a whale. A mix between a Japanese woman and some foreign guy, Dex’s Japanese features overtook his foreign ones, yet the foreign features were still maintained, like in his dark skin and larger than normal lips. He was wearing what he always wore, a green shirt with blue shorts. “Who’s the older chick over there? What, did she get held back or something?”

Akira gritted her teeth as the laughter from everyone -sans her new favorite who was too busy playing some game on his desk to laugh at her - grated on her ears. “Listen here you-!” But as she turned to the offending brat, her eyes widened as she gazed upon the boy named Ooyama in horror as one thought persisted through her mind:

 _‘What the fuck is that?!’_

Ms. Mari sighed; she completely forgot about her new problem child. “This is…” Crap, what did that guy say her alias was? “..Mara Kumegiya, and she’s just catching up on some things before she graduates.” A _lot_ of things. “Why don’t you introduce yourself Ms. Kumegiya?”

How the hell was he so _fat?!_ He was like, 10 -at least she was assuming that- how did he balloon to that size?!

“Ms. Kumegiya!”

That was _American_ fat! Was he a mutant? He had to be a mutant, like those freaks who were stupid enough to stay in Kotobi-

“MS. KUMEGIYA!” Akira let out a yelp, much to Ms.Mari’s satisfaction. “If you’re done giving Mr. Ooyama bedroom, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself to the class?”

“Y-yeah…” She ignored the silent laughter -and the fat kid’s reddening face- and headed to the front of the class. “My name’s Mara Kumegiya.” Oh god that tub of lard was winking at her! “I’m 17 years old, and I moved here from the Murasaki Ward. I will be a live-in student at the Academy from here to my graduation, and I hope that you will treat me well.”

“Thank you Ms. Kumegiya, you may take your seat.” Ms. Mari said with approval as Akira went back to her desk. _‘That went pretty well!’_ She thought Ms. Aoi was going to be much more of a problem, and who could blame anyone in this situation, but this was a pleasant surprise! “Now as I was saying, Open up the Pre-Net History app and CTRL F this phrase, and we’ll start from there. And class? If anyone interrupts me again, we’ll be doing book learning all day, _are we clear?_ ”

“Yes Ms. Mari.”

“Good!”

As she began her day, a notification appeared on her desktop. _‘MegaMan?’_ Why would he be sending out an Email? Curious, she opened up the mail, saw the ID, and quickly closed it, pressing a shortcut command on her keyboard to let the Email pass through the school’s firewall. _‘Just what the heck did you two get into?!’’_ The last time those two used their NetSaver authority to get out of school he went to a skull shaped island filled with a bunch of armed lunatics! _‘Please, whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, stay safe!’_ There was no use worrying about it now; she had to do her job and trust in the boys.

* * *

**SciLab Main headquarters, 9:44  
Yuichirio Hikari’s office.**

Where SciLab Hokkaido was where the rejects and the ones looking for a second chance went to, SciLab Tokyo was where the intelligent, resourceful, and those who had the money to buy their positions went. Yuichiro Hikari was two of those three, though depending on if whoever you talked to hated the guy or liked him, you wouldn’t be able to tell _which_ of those two were the case.

He created the modern PETs and was responsible for single handedly crafting each and every software and hardware update for the devices.

He was the head chief of Japan’s Internet Security Forces, his expertise in the field helping automate a lot of the defensive grids positioned at key structures on the internet. To many in the scientific community, those who managed to learn that he was responsible for a lot of these things despite the heavy NDAs or because they earned the permissions to learn it, he was on a pillar far above normal men. To the normal rank and file, he was just some pompous ass who got his position because his daddy was such an important pillar in the making of modern society.

Tadashi Hikari...or Thomas Light as he was originally called. Yuichiro never thought about his father much nowadays, much to his displeasure. The man was rarely around, but when he was by god, the two of them and mom made up for all that lost time the best that they could. Those were simpler times, back when things weren’t so complicated, boys played and watched TV instead of upstaging the government’s efforts to keep the peace, foiling a bombing plot, stopping a plane crash _while on said plane, getting thrown in a dungeon and nearly set on fire multiple times by a princess working for a terrorist organization, **going to an heavily irradiated city whose radiation was worse than Chernobyl’s-**_ Lan and Hub were such good kids! It was a shame trouble seemed to attract the two like a fire did to moths, and upon seeing the Email Hub sent him just 40 minutes ago, he knew he’d have to break out the special stuff again, him and Haruka.

 _ **To:** Dad (Email Address Withheld)  
 **From:** MegaMan.EXE, 9:12 (PET#44, Model Ver2)  
 **Subject:** WIXOSS_

That Email was the reason he was sifting through his dad’s personal belongings in the back room. “WIXOSS, WIXOSS!” He heard that name before but where! “Come on dad, work with me!” Oh why did he have to put so much stuff into physical media?! And not even something like a floppy disk, that’d be too easy! Using the incredibly speed he used to type lines of code faster than his peers, he had looked over every single legible bit of wording in his father’s old documents, organizing the papers into neat piles behind him while his PET, taped to his head with the flashlight app enabled, provided a better light source than the bulb above. “I know it’s in here!” Nothing, nothing, nothing-Ah there it was!” With the chant right at the top of the paper!

**A Girl prayed to fulfill her wish.**

 ****

****

****

**Scattered strange gene "wixoss"**

 ****

****

****

**all around the world fusion into one form.**

 ****

****

****

**Searching in vain for a fight...**

 ****

****

****

**Victory will be the only way for her**

 ****

****

****

**wish to revolutionize.**

 ****

****

****

**Now, shall her "Wish Across" be conquered.**

“I knew it!” It was one of the few card games he and dad ever played..when he was old enough to look at the girls on the cards that was. Now there was a burning question plaguing his mind: How did Hub know about this? There was only one answer, and Yuichiro knew there was no denying it.

But why on earth would Wily bring a silly card game into his schemes?

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 9:44  
Class-2A Network**

 _ **To:** MegaMan.EXE, 9:12 (PET#44, Model Ver2)  
 **From:** Dad (Email Address Withheld)  
 **RE:** WIXOSS_

 _When you get to SciLab for your field trip, tell me **everything.** I’m bringing in Chaud and ProtoMan to the proceedings. Thank you for not divulging anything in the message. _

MegaMan blinked, rereading the Email again. _‘Not divulging anything?’_ He gave dad a full rundown of everything he just went through! Something wasn’t right here, and opening up his outbox and the last mail he sent proved it.

 _ **To:** Dad (Email Address Withheld)  
 **From:** MegaMan.EXE, 9:12 (PET#44, Model Ver2)  
 **Subject:** WIXOSS_

He wrote 4000 words in that mail, and all of it was gone! It was just the subject that was left as the only text he wrote for this thing **!** **INITIALIZING PET SAFE MODE TRIGGERS. PLEASE SELECT PARAMETERS FOR ACTIVATION**. This had _never_ happened before, and he was going to play this safe. And speaking of safe, a certain redhead and her pink Navi still hadn’t responded to his mails. Oh well; dad wasn’t the only government official he sent an Email to. He and Lan had all the time in the world tonight to interrogate her, but for now it was his and Lan’s favorite time of the day: NetBattle Class.

“NetBattle Class huh?” Piruluk muttered as the Warp Gate activated, it’s systems alerting her and everyone that the destination had changed. She looked to MegaMan, her face emotionless. _‘Time to see what you’ve got, Navi.’_ Being sealed up like this would mean a lot less pain if he tried stabbing her again now that she was bound by the rules of Cyberspace. **ACTIVATING WWW SCANNER.** Given what happened with WWW and then Gospel, it was a safe bet to assume that the TetraCode’s security was upped, possibly beyond what Saiko and FlashMan could handle. Better to be safe than sorry in this case.

And as MegaMan finished setting the parameters for his systems to go into Safe Mode, he missed something very important. Given the current situation you wouldn’t blame him, and he’d seen it plenty of times before this WIXOSS stuff happened last night, but maybe it was a good thing he didn’t notice in this particular instance.

 **WIXOSS.BIO HAS BEEN FULLY INSTALLED ONTO MEGAMAN.EXE  
TIME OF INSTALLATION:WRWRWR%%#%#  
FILE SIZE: 2M(ERROR! ERROR!)  
BIOS FILE HAS BEEN INSTALLED IN MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44/PROGRAMFILES/BATTLENETWORK**


	5. School Days part 2: MegaMan vs Piruluk!

**ACDC Academy, 9:55**

**Floor 2 Main Network, NetBattle Center**

“Alright class, take your seats!”

Sitting down along with everyone else, Piruluk took a look at the arena. Most schools, particularly the ones Akira loved to pretend she had the grades to get into 4 years back, wasted file size and resources on grand, massive arenas, meant to show off and give the students an air of unwarranted superiority as well as give the school a reason to show off. ACDC Academy was different.

120 seats, 30 seats separated in 4 corners at the points of the diamond shaped stadium. 

She was sitting at the left point of the diamond, while Lan’s Navi and his friends, minus a certain pink pseudo-LRIG, were sitting at the opposite end.  _ ‘So, Pinnochio has an entourage. How cute.’  _ To the left of Lan’s Navi was Glyde.EXE, an adult sized Navi with the face and mannerisms of a middle aged British Butler.  __ Made by the Ayanokoji Corporation and given to the CEO/Founder’s daughter Yai Ayanokoji, Glyde was priority#1 during WWW’s and Gospel’s attempted takeovers given the wealth of information at his disposal. And thanks to Lan’s Navi, all those attempts failed.

To the right of Lan’s Navi was GutsMan.EXE, a hulk of a creature if ever there was one. He wasn’t that much of a threat according to Wily’s data, and she could tell from a glance that intellectually, the info was right on the money. He did his job as a Navi and that was it, and he looked the most excited to fight judging by how twitchy his gorilla arms were.

At its current size, the stadium could fit a small house, though the fighting arena was quite small with a blue diamond shape pattern overlaid atop of a black, starry floor. It was obvious that the room in its entirety was modifiable, the seats and the arena, and the processing power to handle this had to be immense. Heck, the only reason she wasn’t lagging or having connection problems was because the desk Akira put the PET into was doing most of the work processing and transmitting her data. 

**ANALYSIS COMPLETE. DATA SAVED AS SCAN.TXT.** _ ‘That didn’t take long.’  _ Still though, something wasn’t right….  **OPENING SCAN.TXT**

  
  


**SCILAB METROPOLITAN EDUCATIONAL SIMULATOR**

**MODEL 2.22**

**COPYRIGHT 2010, SCILAB®**

  
  


_ ‘I knew it.’ _ A quick look through the patent directory installed into her revealed that the information she was seeing was not only out of date, but with the incorrect unicode at the end of the second instance of “SciLab”.Using the term ‘Educational Simulator’ for a NetBattle arena went out of practice after a lengthy lawsuit involving SciLab and the Japanese Board of Education, and the Model Number was back when Wily worked with SciLab, according to the data here, and was used for testing purposes. All that already was weird enough, but even weirder was why SciLab hid the TetraCode here.

Hiding the Elemental Programs where they were before Wily found them made sense; no one would suspect what were essentially the non-sentient gods of the Cyberworld to be hidden in a random oven of all things, and it wouldn’t leave much of a trail for anyone to follo. But Alpha, while having nowhere near the devastating, lightspeed infecting power the LifeVirus had, was even more crippling despite taking even longer to acquire the tools to unlock it. And after WWW1 and Gospel were demolished, why not move the programs?  _ ‘They must not realize that we know where they are.’  _ Oh well; their idiocy was her gain.FlashMan and Saiko would be alerted to this surprise after school. For now, it was time to play the part of the student.

But first.. **.OPENING NAVI.TXT. OPENING LINK TO MAIN PET SCREEN.** Seeing Akira squirm always made her day.

MegaMan meanwhile, was sitting with his friends. The two of them talked about the new student; well not exactly  _ talk,  _ more like Glyde airing his suspicions about the new student and her Navi to the not exactly smart but shockingly tight lipped bruiser, but MegaMan didn’t know that.  _ ‘Lock set, triggers set if any processes go under above set parameters…’  _ Alright, that was done, time for NetBattle Class! 

* * *

  
  


A few second later, Akira read the text sent to her by Piruluk

_ ‘Gotta hurry gotta hurry gotta hurry!’ _ Now she was -poorly- keeping cool and hiding her frustration the best she could, despite how much she hated her current situation. Frantically, she kept trying to type on her PET with the frankly outdated keyboard, but the device was so old that it was better suited for preteen fingers!  _ ‘Goddamnit why are these buttons SO TINY?!’ _ How the hell did those old fogeys get work done on these things back in the day?! For that matter, why didn’t she change the registered Folder for her PET back to the non-WIXOSS one?!  _ ‘I finally got Piruluk to shut up about me lazing around on this crap, and I go and prove her right!’ _ She was almost slamming her fingers on the keys from how fast she was looking at the folders, many of which seemed pointless and things she thought she had told Piruluk to delete already.  _ ‘Ok, ok found it!’  _ And that’s when a text window opened up on the screen.

**FOLDER 1 SET AS MAIN FOLDER**

**ANTI SCANNER PROGRAM ACTIVATED, WIXOSS PROGRAMS AND ALL RELATED FOLDERS AND FILES HIDDEN FROM DETECTION UNTIL IT IS DEEMED SAFE BY ADMINISTRATOR OR THE ACTING LRIG**

“.....” Akira’s eye twitched as the scanning program swept through her PET, giving her the all clear. “...That  _ bitch. _ ” And despite her whispering that, it was another coin in the swear jar.  _ ‘There was a program for this  _ **_ALL THIS TIME?!_ ** _ ’  _ Nope, nope! She wasn’t gonna get worked up over this, her future was at stake!  _ ‘Two minutes until class starts.’  _ Thankfully she had some BattleChips ready in case she had to do some public NetBattling.

**FOLDER1**

**BATTLECHIP COUNT: 30**

**Mega Chip COUNT: 0**

**GIGACHIP COUNT:0**

**STANDARDCHIP COUNT: 30**

**REGULARCHIP: FSTGAUGE**

  
  


_ ‘That should do it!’  _ Best BattleChips she had too! Now to see what suckers were going to be her punching bags for the day!  _ ‘God my fingers hurt!’  _ At least she won’t have to use that thing for a while. Opening up the folder for this specific class she got a good long look at the class list for the day.  _ ‘Geez, that’s a lot of generic Navis!’  _ And only like, 5 unique ones!  _ ‘I thought this was a good school!’  _ What, these kids couldn’t get their parents to fart out the cash for some good Navis?  _ ‘Who even are these guys anyway?’  _ Some stuffy looking conehead, a robo gorilla with a big jaw, Piruluk, one that was greyed out-possibly getting repairs or absent- and...and….. Cue the hands slamming agains the desk.“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BLUE FUCKWAD DOING HERE?!”

“MISS KUMEGIYA! HALLWAY!  _ NOW!” _

  
  


* * *

  
  


{I have removed Miss Kumegiya from class} Miss Mari said over the battle arena’s intercom over the snickering of her human students and some of the Navi ones, many of which were looking at a nonplussed Piruluk, who had a red icon above her head. {Because of this, I will be acting as Piruluk’s NetOp for the duration of the school day.}

“That’s fair.” Piruluk stated.  _ ‘And there went half of my power’ _

  
  


{Alright then! Mr. Ooyama, Ms.Ayanokoji, see me after class. As for why you’re in trouble too Ms. Ayanokoji, blame GutsMan for not deleting the homework ID on his PET. and Mr Ooyama? Make your plagiarism  _ less  _ obvious next time?} Now everyone was laughing, this time at GutsMan and Glyde as the taller stuffy Navi glared angrily into space, most likely at a one-way holo-screen that was showing his panicking NetOp’s face. Ms.Mari waited for the class to quiet down before speaking again. {Now then. Today’s Netbattle Class is to let Piruluk shine! And since she’s an Aqua Element Navi, The field this time will be a marsh. Information about the rest of today’s matchups have been sent to everyone’s PETs, so I expect both NetOp and Navi to communicate their strategies effectively.. And do remember that I  _ will  _ be listening in on everything you say and type, are we clear?}

“Yes Ms.Mari…” Said the entire class.

{Thank you! I hope to see some pro virus busting skills today!}

Piruluk’s systems alerted her to a change in her PET’s administrator.  _ ‘Mariko Ozono.’  _ The woman that turned Higure Yamitarō, or Higsby as he was known nowadays, into a snitch during the WWW’s first reign of terror and the LRIG testing phase, though thankfully Mayu erased his memory of his contributions during his time on the WIXOSS project. Amazing how his intelligence went out the window when a cute girl told him to do something. The fact that this Ozono sister was still Lan’s teacher despite knowing of his accomplishments and had the permission to gain administrative access over student Navis, something even most teachers in reform schools couldn’t do, proved that she was a force to watch out for.  _ ‘Though she’s not that much of a threat if she failed to see my tampering.’  _ Case in point…

**FIRST MATCH**

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**VS**

**PIRULUK.EXE**

  
  


Glyde narrowed his eyes.  _ ‘That shouldn’t be right.’  _ Looking at his short blue friend, he could see the same suspicion in his eyes as he looked at the holo-screen above. “I see you find this quite odd as well?”

“Yeah. Ms.Mari would never pit a new student against me. It’s against school rules?”

“Guts…” GutsMan grumbled. “Smells like a hack job Guts.”

Glyde nodded in agreement. “My thoughts exactly, chum.”

“Guts, Guts, Guts…” Both of them watched as MegaMan walked down the stairs to the arena, Piruluk doing the same at her end. “You’re going?”

“I don’t have a choice.” MegaMan answered. “ Besides, Ms.Mari would know if someone tampered with the matchups.”

“You are correct on that.”

“Yep.”

MegaMan waved them off. The fight would be a very welcome distraction, a good way to clear his head for the inevitable confrontation with his next door neighbor this afternoon. WIXOSS, LRIGs, those absurd damage numbers, and Roll’s sudden increase in strength and power.  _ ‘Just clear your mind and focus on the battle.’  _ As he walked to the arena, He noticed that his opponent was staring at him, not a hint of emotion to be found on her face.  _ ‘The way she’s walking is odd.’  _ All the weight was being forwarded to her stomach...did she have an injury there?

MegaMan and Piruluk stepped onto the arena’s floor, Lan opening up a text line to his brother. |Are you ok?|

|No.| MegaMan texted back. |And keep a straight face when I tell you this: we have a Code 3.|

* * *

  
  


Lan did just as MegaMan said, keeping a straight, ‘I gotta go to the bathroom but I’m holding it in’ face as he processed what he heard. |Code 3?! But I didn’t get anything from Chaud about any terrorist attacks!|

|Well it does. I can’t tell you anymore since I don’t know how you’d react, but I’ll fill you in once we go to SciLab today. For now, don’t ask anymore questions. I don’t know who might be listening in.|

|Ok MegaMan.| Oh boy,MegaMan was worried about being hacked. Yeah, this was not going to be a fun week, that he could tell.

“Lan, are you ready?” Lan looked up to see Ms.Mari staring at him expectantly. 

“Uhmm yeah?

“You can go to the bathroom if you want to.” His teacher said with a hint of worry. “It looks like you need it.”

“N-no I’m fine!” Lan replied with a nervous chuckle, making his Navi and his teacher mentally facepalm. “I’m just excited to NetBattle you again, that’s all! You made GutsMan into a pro fighter with your skills, and you operated him much better than Dex!”

“HEY!”

“...Alright then.” And her student just wasted the out she gave him so he could do his NetSaver business. “I have Piruluk’s Folder ready, do you have MegaMan’s done?”

“Yes Ms.Mari.”

* * *

{The first match will be between me and Lan, and MegaMan and Piruluk.} A holo-screen appeared above the heads of both combatants, MegaMan’s at 1200 and Piruluk at 500. {Here are the stipulations for victory in this match!}

  
  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**VS**

**PIRULUK.EXE**

**VICTORY CONDITIONS**

**MEGAMAN.EXE HP REACHES 800**

**OR**

**PIRULUK.EXE HP REACHES 100**

**RESTRICTIONS**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: 2**

**GIGA CHIPS ARE BANNED!**

**NO CHIP INSTALLATION LIMIT ON CUSTOM SCREEN**

  
  
  


{Is that fair?}

“Yes Ms. Mari.” 

Piruluk nodded. “I see no problems with these terms.”

{Alright! Field on!}

**INITIALIZING LIGHT LABS TERRAFORM PRACTICE FIELD.**

Piruluk’s eyes were wide in shock as she heard that.  _ ‘Light Labs?!’  _ That didn’t show up in her scans! Not a hint of copyright information, no mention of it in the metadata tags, anything!

The four corners of the arena drifted away, at least 200 feet from the center of the room, leaving a black, empty void of 800 feet. Blades of grass shot out from the arena, covering it and the void. Neither Navi felt the grass, the two of them standing a good 2 feet above it as the arena shifted and changed, and yet they had not moved a single inch. Optical illusions were amazing. A few seconds later, a massive tidal wave rushed through the grassy field, turning it into a marshland while leaving some of the land dry and untouched. Small buildings popped up from the marshy ground, some with flat roofs, others slanted, all of them at different heights. {So this is what the computer chose.} Ms.Mari noted as she began to read off the field information. {It’s obvious what the field type is so I’m not reading that off. The deepest waters here go to 18 fathoms while the smallest depth is 4. Everywhere else is ankle high water. The terrain itself will be hard to move in, since the two of you don’t have a method of flight or hovering, so prioritize staying on dry land, and keep your opponent in your sights. You can use the houses for cover, but they can be destroyed by a basic Buster Shot.}

“Got it Ms.Mari!”

“I understand.”

{Alright! Lan, do you want to say it? Be sure to type any commands you have for MegaMan!}

{H-huh? Y-yeah sure! Ready MegaMan?}

“Yep!”

And so the two dropped to the field, and the second their feet made contact with the ground, the two ran in the direction opposite of the other. Or rather waddled with the pace of a slow jog. Piruluk recounted the rules in her head, heading for a house ahead of her.  _ ‘Three minutes to go over a plan with the NetOp. StageChips are forbidden, and no program advances.’  _ That meant most of Akira’s Folder was useless _.  _ Now curious, she opened up a line to her current NetOp. “Teacher, you’ve changed Akira’s folder right?”

|Of course I have! Your NetOp has a reputation of being quite the sore loser and a cheater at that! So I’m using one of my older student’s Folders!|

Piruluk hid her distaste. |Understood.| She finally got onto dry land and entered the house. |What’s the plan?|

Lan read over the text his Navi put to screen and began typing a response. |Are you sure she’s an Aqua Navi MegaMan?| Lan typed.

“Positive. And I don’t know why, but I have this feeling I’ve seen her before…”

|Ok, if you say so.| Jeez, he was acting cagey today! |Ok then, I’m gonna load up the Battle Forecast and let’s get this show on the road!|

“Wait don-!”

**AREA SCANNED FOR COMBAT POTENTIAL.**

**BATTLEFIELD SIZE: 800 feet**

**TERRAIN: grass, swamp, water, brick**

  
  
  


**COMBATANTS**

  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**HP: 1200**

**CHIP COUNT: 30.**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: 0**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT:0**

**WIXOSS CERTIFICATION:HUB.BATCH(?)**

**Piruluk.EXE**

**HP: 700**

**CHIP COUNT: 30.**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT: 0**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT:0**

**WI$^^#OSS CER553f^**

|WIXOSS certification?|

“Darn it…” Oh he could feel his brother’s curiosity and worry. Worried Lan was bad enough, but if his brother found out about Roll last night before he could break the news to him...

|MegaMan, what is that?|

“Something very very bad… keep a straight face and focus on the battle.” Lan sent an angry emoticon. “If I knew the answers myself I would have told you, but we can focus on that later. We have a field trip to SciLab today remember? We can ask dad about it there.” And he could ask Piruluk about that jumbled data. That couldn’t be a coincidence after what happened last night.

|Ok then.| The counter on his PET was ticking down. But |I’m not letting this go MegaMan.|

“I know. Let’s just focus on the match.”

|I’ll hold you to that. Battle Routine Set!|

“Execute!”

And thus the fight was on.

Busting through the roof in a single jump, MegaMan surveyed the area and loaded up the first BattleChip. “ZapRing2!” his right arm changed into a giant blue flat blade plug. Barely a nanosecond after that, a disc of energy shot out of the space between the blades and into the water, electrifying it as he descended. “ZapRing1!” Second verse, same as the first, only MegaMan aimed a bit further ahead electrifying a nearby house. “AirShoes!” The second he hit the water’s surface, he stopped a good two inches off the ground and ran north out of the house, running on air and above the electrified water.

“Pretty sneaky. Piruluk reluctantly admitted from her vantage point. Even if she wasn’t an Aqua Navi, the paralysis would still be a bitch to contend with. “But not sneaky enough.” Her left arm changed into a Buster as she began charging energy. When the tank was full, she jumped out of the house and aimed downward at where she was going to land, firing at the water. A large sheet of ice as big as a car formed where she shot, allowing her to land safely on the hazard without injury. “Windbox.” A large fan formed at the end of the ice platform, it’s blades powering on and sending her and her makeshift boat towards Lan’s Navi. “Buster+” 

**Buster+**

**10Atk added to Charge Shot**

**Charging time reduced**

Piruluk charged her Buster and held the energy inside the barrel. She then activated a BattleChip in her free hand, turning it into a bow-like apparatus, the strings of the bow attached to the end of the gauntlet. “He’s getting closer.” And the ice was melting faster from the intense heat. She kicked the WindBox into the air and jumped, the extra air produced by the fan propelling her higher as it exploded, it’s usage expired.

  
Still running, MegaMan kept an eye on his now aerial opponent. He had to admit, that was a pretty risky and clever trick with Windbox, but what was her game?  _ ‘I can sense Buster Energy in one hand and an Aqua Element Chip in the other…..ooooh..’  _ So that was your plan huh? MegaMan headed towards the nearest patch of grass, Piruluk firing at his position as he made landfall. The first shot from her bow barely missed, he rolled out the way of the second shot, and nearly managed to kick himself off the ground and out of the way of the last one.  _ ‘TrainArrow2?’  _ He didn’t need his precognition to recognize the color of the arrows sticking out of the ground.  _ ‘Three shots..three left.’  _ And another was coming his way! He kicked off the ground, landing above the electrified water as the first arrow hit, he spun out of the way of the second, and just as Piruluk was coming down, she didn’t shoot the third. 

“GAAGH!” That’s because she shot her Buster at him, freezing his legs solid.

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**HP: 1200**

**-70HP**

**LEGS FROZEN!**

MegaMan quickly punched the ice off of his legs, grabbing a few of the shards in his hand before they could fly off and running towards Piruluk.  _ ‘Windbox, and now TrainArrow.’ _ She had 28 chips left, and he had 27. A rush of excitement coursed through his code as he awaited what she had planned next.

|I told you that wouldn’t work.| Ms.Mari said as Piruluk activated Air Shoes before she fell in the water, falling on her but just a few inches above the electrified marsh. |He can just shake off physical status ailments just like that.|

“I see.” He was coming straight for her again. “It took him a couple seconds to get out of my ice. Close range is what I need.” But first, she needed to get rid of whatever was in his hands. “AquaTower.” With a swipe of her hand, pillars of electrified water a story tall shot out and headed towards her opponent.

|Incoming MegaMan!|

“I see them!” And with the electrical element from what he did to the water, he won’t be moving for a while if it hit! “Lan, send the three Chips on the right! The Asterisk, A and B ones!”

|Ok!|

“Thanks!” MegaMan stopped in place and ran to the left, the electrified AquaTowers following him.  _ ‘So she has that level of control over them?!’  _ Then this plan was going to take a bit of setting up. Shattering through that ice would be super easy, but she could easily make more or reinforce it, and these towers were making getting a good shot really really hard. He ran straight for a few seconds before curving back straight towards Piruluk, who immediately shot her Buster into the water before he could do anything, raising a sheet of ice in front of her as a shield. “MiniBomb.” Three small bombs, orb shaped with a blue stripe in the middle, appeared in his left hand as the AquaTower path split, two of the blocking his way towards their controller.  _ ‘Hmmm…’let me try something.’  _ MegaMan threw the bombs into the air towards Piruluk, and just as they arced atop of the Aqua Towers, the pillars extended up into their path, the electricity causing the orbs to detonate prematurely.  _ ‘Just like I thought.’  _ The remaining AquaTowers began to encircle MegaMan, altering their heights at different speeds, most of them going low enough that he could simply walk over them. So she has a sense of humor huh?  _ ‘Good thing I’m in position!’  _ He thought with a grin. “Lan, send the other two Chips!” He moved to the left, and then to the right, the AquaTowers either staying in position or following him slightly.  _ ‘Interesting.’ _

|MegaMan, what are you doing?!|

“I’m testing out something, seeing if-” An opening! “GUARD2!”

Piruluk felt the AquaTowers she sent after Lan’s Navi dissipating. |Get ready to counterattack!|

“There’s no need.” With the Chip Limits in place here, nothing Lan or his Navi had could seriously hurt her. “Their tactics are decent but their Chip Selection so far leaves a lot to be desired.” Program Advance this Program Advance that, that was the crux of all their best strategies. “I believe I’m safe.”

“Uh-huh. You might want to look on your map screen then.|

“What are you talking?-” Piruluks eyes widened as she looked on her HUD, seeing MegaMan’s icon quickly barreling towards her. “Impossible!” She turned and ran-

**SMASH!**

-Too little too late as MegaMan’s  _ butt  _ smashed through her ice shield and right into her face, sending the two of them skidding above the waters as the momentum made his butt grind her face into the water for the duration of the crash.

  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE**

**HP: 700**

**-100 FROM CONTINUOUS ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE!**

  
  


Piruluk quickly threw him off of her, seeing a yellow shield on her enemy’s arm dissipate. “Urghh…” It hurt to move. The environmental damage was weak, 10HP every second you’re in contact with the hazard, but the status effects... “Y-you us-s-ed G-_Guard to P-propel yourself Didn-DIDN’t YOu?”

“Yep!” MegaMan said, smiling as he rubbed his sore, now tingly butt. “I redirected the force of the attack back at myself before the Chip designated you as a target, sending me flying straight through your shield!”

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**HP: 1130**

**-70HP**

  
  


“I-IS-SEE!” And then he just stood there. For two whole minutes. “A-aren’t you GOING to a-aTTACK?”

“Why?” He replied with a confused look. “That’s against the rules. I have to wait until you recover. If you can’t get up in five minutes, then you can’t fight anymore, and it’s an automatic forfeit.”

“I-iSEE.” The teacher was bleating in her ear about her carelessness.  _ ‘That’s twice you’ve hurt me.’  _ Feeling was returning to her body. “I-I Can M-move-MOVE Now.”

MegaMan jumped a foot away from her and got into a fighting stance with a smile. “Your move.”

A Heal Chip sent by Ms.Mari cured the rest of her ailments. “Thank you.” She aimed her Buster at Lan’s Navi, the thing doing the exact same. Neither of them moved, both of them charging the energy in their arm cannons.  _ ‘I need to immobilize him.’  _ Using the BattleChips FreezeMan used in his fight with Lan’s Navi wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily for her, the hands that be gave her a good Chip Selection this time. “AreaSteal.”

MegaMan’s eyes widened after hearing that, firing his Buster at her only to hit nothing. “Oh crud!” Of course she’d have AreaSteal, Ms. Mari bought out all the stops when NetBattling him and Lan! “Where are you…?”

“Above you.” MegaMan quickly looked up, eyes widening as a blue Spreadgun’s barrel was just inches away from his face. “Bubble Spread.” She unloaded every shot onto him, emptying the chambers on her weapon. Each and every shot made a loud and painful sounding  **_thud_ ** , the impacts so powerful that they slammed into the ground below. Again and again she hit him, never stopping even as she landed above the water, exhausting all 16 shots of the Chip, her arm reverting back to normal in the process. “Hm, that ought to do it.”

|Piruluk, you might want to look at his HP!|

**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**NO DAMAGE TAKEN!**

“Of course…” Piruluk groaned.

|LOOK OUT!|

“GAH!” She heeded the warning too late as her opponent, now transparent, ran up to her and kneed her in the stomach-  _ ‘R-right in the w-wound!’  _ -And then roundhouse kicked her into the air!  _ ‘H-he must have used Invis!’  _ The kick sent her a good 4 feet away, her enemy taking potshots at her with his Buster, six shots in total as she fell, quickly landing on her feet and shooting back at the bastard, who easily dodged her shots as she took quick pauses to slowly raise another ice shield, a translucent one so as to keep an eye on him.  _ ‘Keep dodging, keep dodging…’  _ And more importantly, his other hand. The kick took off a good 50 shots and those hits from his Buster took off a good 60 in total.  _ ‘I’m almost down to half my health.’  _

_ ‘Keep your eyes on her, keep your eyes on her…’  _ And more importantly, her other hand. Jeez, he hoped he didn’t hit her wound! This wasn’t a fight for his life like with LuckyRucky! Suddenly her hand morphed, and he managed to load his BattleChip just a second later. His Chip was a more rounded version of his Buster with a bladed rifling inside the barrel, while Piruluk’s hand didn’t change, and instead she was holding a boomerang. “Bad draw huh?!” He yelled, rushing towards her shield while still dodging her shots, the ice shield letting them pass through.

“You’d be correct.” Piruluk jumped back, keeping an eye on his Buster and his face.  _ ‘He’s looking at my feet. Is that where he’s going to aim?’  _ Continuing her retreat, she held her boomerang closer to the water to block as many of his shots as possible….the shots that she soon realized weren’t coming. “What are you waiting for? You know full well standard Buster fire won’t pierce the metal of a Boomer Chip.”

“Yeah, I know! AIR SHOT!” 

_ ‘Oh crap,’  _ A powerful gust of air shot from her enemy’s arm cannon at her face, the damage blocked just in time by the boomerang, but that wasn’t what she was worried about, for Air Shot was one of the more powerful Chips on dangerous terrain, as shown when,despite blocking the 20HP worth of damage, she was sent skidding into the water and electrified  _ again.  _ “GAGAGGAGAGAGAAA!”

“AIR SHOT!”

And he did it again! 

**PIRULUK.EXE**

**HP: 600**

**-20 FROM AIR SHOT**

**-200 FROM CONTINUOUS ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE!**

  
  


|Hold on Piruluk! Panel Return!|

**PANEL RETURN**

**STANDARD CHIP**

**ELIMINATES ALL TERRAIN ALTERATIONS WITHIN NETBATTLE ARENA**

**UNABLE TO FUNCTION OUTSIDE OF OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED NETBATTLE LOCATIONS**

Mega Man watched with irritation as the electrical charge of the water disappeared. “And it was such a good plan too..” Lan rarely used ideas like this!

{Yes it was MegaMan, and I commend you and Lan for thinking of it!}

“Darn it…” Piruluk was feeling very Akira right now….

{But now I think it’s time we end this, shall we?}

{Huh?} Lan looked at the two Navi’s health bars. {But MegaMan’s still in the lead Ms.Mari!}

The teacher let out a chuckle...a very familiar chuckle that told Lan she knew something that he should’ve. {Yes, that’s correct. But do remember it was my sister who taught me to NetBattle...and you do remember who my sister was, right? I guess you can say I have a bit of  _ Jealousy,  _ don’t you think?}

{Yeah Ms.Yuri-} Lan’s eyes widened as he began typing. |MegaMan, get away from Piruluk,  _ now! _ |

MegaMan jumped up into the air, raising his arms into an X-position to guard his face. “GUARD1!” All he had to do was redirect the shield before he attacked and he’d be out of attack-

“Catcher.” Before MegaMan could even register what had happened, the data for his Chip had left his systems and installed themselves into Piruluk’s. A tractor beam had kept him suspended in the air, courtesy of a yellow and red UFO with a face and appearance that wouldn’t look out of place as a company mascot.

  
  


**CATCHER**

**STANDARD CHIP**

**UNINSTALLS 1 BATTLECHIP FROM ENEMY OPPONENT.**

**ONLY 1 OF THIS CHIP IS LEGALLY ALLOWED IN CIVILIAN PETS**

“So that’s your plan I see.” Irritating.With a near snarl, Piruluk charged her Buster and activated the Guard1 Chip, summoning the shield and quickly got in front of it, firing her Buster just as Lan’s Navi reached the halfway point of his fall. “Guard1.” She fired her Buster at the shield, which ricocheted off of it and into the new shield on her arm, sending her flying straight at the blue nuisance. She slammed right into him, giving him a taste of his own medicine and kicking off of him before unloading five uncharged shots into his chest, and then began charging her Buster again per Ms. Mari’s orders. With the fall, the impact, and the speed at which it all happened, MegaMan’s Air Shoes didn’t have enough time to trigger, sending the blue Navi into the water. One Piruluk was on ‘the ground’, she fired her Charge Shot at him, freezing him in place. “There.”

{Thank you Piruluk!} Ms. Mari said. {And as for you Lan, I never said that there was a Chip Limit for you right?}

{....Oh no…..} 

{And that tells me all I need to know! Piruluk?}

The blue-haired Navi nodded. “Understood.” She was going to enjoy this. And the resulting pain was the perfect distraction to give him a little present.  **“Jealousy.”**

  
  
  


**JEALOUSY**

**MEGA CHIP**

**DAMAGE (VARIABLE) HP LOST DEPENDING ON CHIP TYPE/CLASS/ETC**

  
  
  
  


There was no grandiose animation, no screams of agony, not even a single attack. The Chip did it’s job, taking 80 HP away for every Chip Lan loaded into him. “3...4...6...9…” 

  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE**

**DAMAGE LIMIT REACHED!**

**WINNER: PIRULUK.EXE**

  
  
  


Yep, Piruluk was feeling **_very_** Akira right now.

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 11:00**

**Room 6B**

There were a lot of empty rooms on the 2nd floor of ACDC Academy, but there were many more rooms occupied with students and faculty. These empty rooms were for extracurricular purposes, mostly being a safe place to use chemicals in, but when they weren’t in use, they often served as gathering spots for the various cliques to eat come lunchtime. Room 6B was where the former gardening club used to be, and until the school decided what to do with the room, two troublemakers and their much more academically inclined friends used it as a club room to chat, eat and NetBattle. Contrary to popular belief, Ms.Mari wasn’t a complete stick up her butt disciplinarian, she liked to let her students have fun,  _ especially  _ during her ‘off days.’

“ I can’t believe you lost to the newbie!”

“Shut up Dex…” Lan grumbled as he and Dex ate their lunches peacefully. “How was I supposed to know that she’d pull out Jealousy?!” He took a bite out of his mushy peanut butter and jelly sandwich and swallowed. “That wasn’t in the rules!”

“HAH!” The taller, more rotund boy replied as he too ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “She didn’t say that we  _ couldn’t  _ use Mega Chips! It’s not her fault you didn’t read!”

“Rub it in why don’t you…” Lan looked at his bitten-into sandwich and sighed. “When did Ms. Mari say we can eat good food again?”

“When we become model students…” Dex answered, just shoving the entire sandwich into his mouth and gulping it down in one go. “Straight A’s, perfect attendance, and all that goody-two-shoes junk.”

“How you two haven’t qualified for expulsion yet is a mystery to me!” The two boys winced, not at who was telling them that, but the oh so  **_delicious_ ** smell emanating from them. There was only one person who could advertise how rich they were just by smell alone: Yai Ayanokoji. Her massive forehead bouncing the light from the windows off it’s surface, the usually pigtailed blonde had decided to forgo her usual hairstyle, her foot length blonde hair done in a gigantic oversized bun. She wore a secretary uniform, with matching skirt, and slim-framed glasses. In her right hand was her bright gold PET, and in her left was a large briefcase, also bright gold, with her face on it. That was where the smell was coming from. “You two dunderheads are the biggest paradoxes in this entire school! Well..second biggest.”

“Good morning Yai!” Lan said with fake cheer, noting a duller tone in her voice. “We’re doing good, how about you!” And she was in her ‘Brown-nosing clothes’...oh how he would pity his poor dad when she inevitably found him.

The little 8 year old scoffed and took a seat next to the two. “I’ll give you respect when you  _ earn  _ it Hikari.”

“I saved you from suffocating to death a few months ago!”

“You can’t go five weeks without stopping some massive catastrophe, try doing something to  _ actually  _ impress me please?” The two boys growled, ignoring their whining stomachs as the delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich was taken out of her briefcase. “Ahh, there’s nothing like the classics, right boys? Freshly made honey infused into the peanut butter with cranberry jam. It’s the simple things, you know?”

Ignoring Dex trying to butter up Yai, Lan’s anger at being baited like this was instead focused on the blonde’s lack of enthusiasm. “What’s wrong Yai?”

Dex stared at Lan confused and then turned to the tiny terror. “Yeah he’s right! You’re usually lording over us with your food  _ way more  _ than this! And you haven’t even given us our share yet!

“...That’s because you’re not getting anymore shares…” Yai told them, her mood dropping fast. Because of that new student, Ms.Mari bought out the security scanners and found out about the stuff I hid in my briefcase.” The two boys turned white as a sheet. “She found out I was sneaking food to you guys, and had Glyde call my dad.” She saw the looks on her friend’s faces, the utter terror. “You guys aren’t in trouble, don't worry….” Tears began to form in her eyes. “Daddy didn’t even say anything! A few hours later all the money in my food budget was gone, and now...and now…!

* * *

“WHO WANTS LOBSTER?!” Ms. Mari yelled excitedly, the teachers for the grade cheering as they ate their feast. “I got the tartar sauce!”

“I got the stuffed ham!”

“I got the to-go trays!”

“Mariko, what about the students?” One of the teachers asked.

“They’re feasting just as hard as us! Be sure to thank my star student Yai for this!”

* * *

Tears were running down the three’s faces as Yai continued. “Five months worth of lunches and dinners are gonna go to those stupid teachers because I was nice to you  _ losers! _ ” She held up her peanut butter sandwich. “This is the last bit of good food I’m gonna have, and then I’m gonna have to eat the stupid slop you have!” She slammed her face into the ground and began to sob profusely.

“Lan, dude?”

“Yeah?”

“We are in so much trouble once the field trip’s over! Please tell me you got some cool NetSaver stuff!” Ms.Mari was a lot less painful with her punishments whenever Lan did the hero junk!

Lan looked away nervously. “Yeah, I’m not sure about that.” Yai ceased her sobbing and looked up worryingly. “I can’t tell you here, but once we get to SciLab, I’ll tell you and my dad everything.”

The two looked to each other and nodded before Dex spoke up. “That bad huh?” Lan shrugged. “Well why can’t you just share some of the files?”

“And have Chaud breathing down his and subsequently  _ our  _ necks?” Yai answered. “Do you really want skunk-hair finding out that Lan’s been sharing information with us  _ again _ ?”

“He didn’t find out last time!”

“Last time was  _ Kotobuki,  _ nimrod. It’s kinda hard to enforce that when you’re worried about suffocating to death under irradiated computer servers.”

“So Yai, anything on that new student?” Dex and Yai turned to Lan, who was eager to get the conversation far away from that debacle. “How badly did she screw up to get sent back so many grades?”

“Oh man!” Dex said with a laugh. “I completely forgot about that! She’s like a reverse you, Yai!”

“That’s the understatement of the year.” The giant foreheaded girl said as she brought up her PET and opened up the desktop. “Glyde managed to get some information on her before he and the others went to the school’s Square. I didn’t believe what I was reading at first, but the information is legitimate.” Dex and Lan’s PETs beeped, the two boys taking them out of their pockets and opening up the PDF file sent to them. Dex blanched. Lan could barely contain his laughter.

“....It reads like my report card.” Dex said in horror. “But like, a thousand times worse.” 

“I know right?!” Lan said, laughing as he read. “This is so tryhard and fake! Whoever made this must’ve really hated her!”

* * *

Underneath the CyberTree in the school’s Square, Piruluk felt a shiver.  _ ‘What was that?’  _ Probably nothing important.  _ ‘Now which of those folders did Wily put that thing in?’ _

* * *

“Scratch that, the fact that someone even  _ left  _ this here! As her public record!” He and Dex made way better forgeries when they were trying to avoid parent teacher meetings! “There’s like 344 typos in the first sixteen paragraphs!”

“346.” Yai corrected. “It’s pretty obvious that either ‘Mara Kumegiya’ is an alias, one that I don’t blame her for using if she’s stuck in a class full of kids, or that she really is that stupid, and deserves her spot here.”

“See Dex?” Lan activated the Find function and pointed him to the errors. “The dates are all wrong, for starters. I can pretty much tell you that the city there doesn’t have a school at all, and there’s no  _ way  _ that she lives on that street and still look that good!”

“Who looks good?” Oh crap. The three kids closed the file and turned to see the older girl in question staring at them in confusion. “You three reading a fashion magazine or something?”

“Nope!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m not into that girly crud!”

“Oh, ok!” Netsaver kid, Fat Fuck, and Ugly Forehead Girl. god, it felt like she stepped into a sitcom! Netsaver kid was the troublemaker, Fat Fuck the comic relief, and Forehead the kissup rich kid! They were just missing the generic smart good girl and the ensemble would be complete! “Sooooo, I heard Piruluk beat you!”

“Yeah!” Fat Fuck said mockingly, interrupting Netsaver kid before he could see. “Ms.Mari totally whipped his butt with a super rare Mega Chip!” 

“Dex…”

“And she only used her Custom Screen  _ Twice _ ! She could’ve ended Lan right then and there, but totally played him!”

“...Just like how Yai and Mayl do you whenever it’s time to turn in our homework?”

Fat Fuck sputtered and began talking, and Akira could barely hold back her groan of annoyance. “So Lanny Lan!”

“First name basis, huh bud-” The glare from the cute older girl froze him in place.  “S-sorry…”

Damn right you were. “So Lanny Lan! You mind if just you and me talk for a bit? That cun- I mean the teacher said I had to apologize for whatever it was I did to you.” It was either for something she did or something she said. She really didn’t remember.

“Huh?”

“She means her outburst back in class.” Ugly Forehead Girl interjected. “There’s only one Navi that could be called a ‘blueberry f-wad.’

“Oh.” Netsaver Kid turned back to her. “I don’t know what Ms.Mari’s talking about, but I never met you in my life. So you don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“That’s what I told the bitch!”  _ Oh fuck! _ “F-forget you heard that!”

“Why would we?” Ugly Forehead Girl asked. “All three of our Navis our Undernet level strength at their weakest, and we go down there for fun sometimes. None of the kissups and brown-nosers come here anyway, so go ahead and curse. It’s not gonna be any worse than what we hear on UnderSquare’s /H/ board.”

Netsaver Kid and Fat Fuck nodded in agreement.  _ ‘How the fuck do these brats know about that board?!’  _ And they went there for  _ fun?!  _ “No thanks…I don’t want that teacher finding out.”

“That’s good Ms. Kumegiya!” All four students screamed at the sudden appearance of Ms.Mari right in the middle of the room, who had in her hand four forms. “Just remember that you’re not as powerful as you think you are, and we’ll get along just fine!”

Dex ironically was the first to catch his breath. “H-how long were you here?”

“Around the time Ms. Kumegiya walked in.” The teacher explained as she went around the room and put the forms in her student’s hands. “She’s my new problem child, so I have to make sure she stays out of trouble.”

“I-I see.” Lan said nervously.  _ ‘Whew! Less heat on me!’ _

“I want these four forms signed and printed on both ends by the time the trip’s over. We’re leaving for SciLab in 20 minutes, don’t be late!”

“Yes Ms. Mari….” 

“Good!” And then she was gone. 

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” Akira yelled, looking around frantically. “She just popped out of thin air!”

“I wouldn’t question it.” Yai answered. “Ms. Mari has a sister that trained her to do that.” Being a former WWW infiltrator gave Yuriko Ozono a lot of impressive skills to pass down to her sister. “She just does it to mess with us.  _ Specifically us.”  _

“WHY?!”

“Because no one in our grade gets more detention and in school suspensions than us.” Yai shuddered. “Sometimes she lets her sister teach, just to mess with us. She’s just as smart as Ms. Mari, maybe even smarter, so we can’t even tell the difference!” She really hated Ms. Mari’s ‘off days’ and cursed Lan for ever telling her about them.

“O-oh is that so?!” What kind of messed up school had that freak under their employ?!


	6. SciLab Part 1:  The worlds are coming together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Made it before the start of May, yeah!

**CENTRAL DENTECH, 11:55**

**HIGHWAY 3**

  
  


20 minutes into the lunch rush and the bus to SciLab was nowhere near it’s destination. There were at least 40 cars and trucks in the front and back of it, all of them sweltering in the heat. Thankfully for the students of ACDC Academy, their bus had excellent air conditioning and an emergency food supply cache under every seat, something that had become mandatory ever since WWW and Gospel.

“This is gonna take forever…” Ms. Mari muttered as she looked at the traffic report on her PET. “Ok class, you can take out your PETs and go online.” The class stared at her, silent. “That’s it. Just don’t go on any porn sites or bring an Adbot onto the school network, and we won’t have any problems.” That got the class cheering, every one of the kids bringing out their portable devices and talking excitedly. “And Lan?” The boy in question jumped in surprise. “If you have anything  _ important  _ you have to do, now’s the time to do it,  _ understand? _ ”

“But Ms.Mari, I need a PC to make a Mr.Prog’s alpha coding, and the PET doesn’t have that power you need! How can-OW!” Both Dex and Yai slapped him upside the head as MegaMan glared at him. “Oh yeah, that’s right!” Wow, he almost forgot about that! “I’ll be in the bathroom!” He shut the door to the toilet behind him, thanking heaven that it was clean. It always was, but he’d been on too many American buses to know to  **_always_ ** expect the worst. After his paranoia passed, he sat down on the toilet and plugged his PET cord into the Jack-In port on the side. “Alright MegaMan, let’s go!”

Meanwhile, Akira’s PET beeped. |We have a match.| Piruluk typed, her face perfectly hiding the glee she felt. |Someone responded to the post last night. ACDC Highway Area 2.| Finally, revenge, and it was all thanks to SciLab’s high traffic.

Ms. Mari looked up from her PET, her teacher’s intuition flaring at the evil grin on her newest student’s face.  _ ‘Now what could she be up to?’  _ Whatever it was, it’s not like Akira could do anything on the bus with the power of a mishmashed Model 1 PET.  _ ‘Now then, where was I?’  _ Oh yes, checking on Miss Sakurai’s homework. Even when taking the day off, that girl was on point with her schoolwork!

* * *

**CENTRAL AREA 1, 12:11**

**WARP GATE#44**

Stepping off of the Warp Gate, MegaMan sat down at a nearby bench and waited for the connection to the PET to be reestablished. Traffic in the area was  _ pretty  _ high today, as evidenced by the fact he could see the not so nice section of town through the window. The Warp Gate was a nice, private, domed off area, with a large zoo outside.. This was on a SciLab server, so once the connection back to Lan was set, the two of them could set up a plan to talk about this WIXOSS stuff...and get Mayl and Roll to talk. 

**CONNECTION TO PET REESTABLISHED.**

“Wow.” That didn’t take long at all. And according to the PET’s sensors, the bus was moving again! “Alright Lan, I’m heading to SciLab’s Square!”

MegaMan walked out of the dome and onto an automatic walkway, setting it to it’s fastest possible speed. He got to the bottom, walked out the door, spent a good three minutes walking, and the second he was on the public network, He headed for the nearest bus stop he could find. Seeing the temperature on his HUD made him very glad he was so resistant to the elements, because wow, he didn’t pity the rest of the Navis stuck in this heat! Should SciLab’s net traffic be too high and you were a Netsaver of a sufficiently high rank, aka you could be trusted to take care of yourself, Warp Gate 44 took you to the boonies, the bad side of town. Buildings were out of date with grass growing over some of the walls, the roads caused more accidents than the reckless idiots and drunks that sped down them, and there was a sizeable homeless population. And that was just it’s Cyberworld equivalent! Yes, this part of Dentech was almost a point for point copy of it’s real world counterpart, and it looked to remain that way for the foreseeable future, Not because the humans and Navis here liked the aesthetic, because lord knows they don’t, and they tried and failed to get it changed, but it’s just one of those mysteries of the Net: if the area the server was in wasn’t well maintained, the Cyberworld equivalent would mirror its state.

_ ‘Judging by the road, this area is in the Murasaki Ward.’  _ Though he couldn’t be sure, given this area’s poor network. He could make a download request for a map, the server didn’t have the signal strength to download even an image file to his PET.  _ ‘SciLab’s traffic must be terrible if the gate redirected me here.’  _ This road in the real world was known as ‘Murderer’s Path.’ And one look at the pothole ridden mess and the state of the buildings around it told you how it got that name.”Lan, how’s my signal strength?”

[-30 DBM, why?] Lan asked.

“The Warp Gate sent me straight into South Hirosabe. The next bus probably won’t be for another few hours, so I’m gonna head back to the gate and Jack Out.”

[Alright. Battle Chip transmission speed’s all clear too, so if you want me to load any-]

“Yeah, do it now.” The tone in his voice set Lan on edge, and he immediately sent 4. “That’s the best you can do huh?”

[I said the transmission speed is good, not the upload. There’s this stupid block preventing me from sending more!]

“Probably a data cap to keep the crime rate down.” Which meant higher level Standard Chips were out, as well as all Mega and Giga Chips. MegaMan took a good look at his arsenal and nodded in approval. “Alright, I’m heading ba-”He quickly bent his back to the ground, missing the gigantic shard of ice embedded in the wall. The screams of the Netizens filled the air as he got back up and away from the shard. “What in the world?!” His combat forecast was coming on! “Oh you gotta be kidding me!”

“I’m sad to say that this is no joke.” From on top of a building across the street stood what was currently the strongest Navi he had ever faced. “Good morning MegaMAn.

  
  


**LUCKYRUCKY.EXE**

**HP: 4000**

**CHIP COUNT: 12**

**MEGA CHIP COUNT:1**

**GIGA CHIP COUNT: 0**

**SIGNI: 58**

**ARTS:7**

  
  


“YOU!” Of all the villains to have the common sense to not wait three months to try to kill him again, why did it have to be her?!  _ ‘I can see her HP count now!’  _ And her Chip Count too!  _ ‘Signi? Arts?’  _ More questions for dad to help answer.  “What are you doing here?!” 

“Getting my revenge” The cloaked Navi held up her staff towards him as though it were a sword. “You’re going to pay for humiliating me last night. Send a SIGNI, now.”

Akira’s face couldn’t get any whiter than right now. She frantically typed on her PET, keeping it closer to her to prevent the little brats from seeing her screen. |WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING PIRULUK?!  **> :( >:(>:(** |

|The Admin wishes for his extermination, and this is now the perfect time for it. Send a SIGNI, now.|

|FINE! | A few more frowny face emojis later and she sent two Level 1 SIGNI. _ ‘Stupid lying sack of crap!  _ |Why didn’t you tell me you were going after the blue shit!|

|Because you can’t hide your emotions well.| Was what Piruluk typed as the PET screen showed that the LRIG activated Code Art RFR. |I believe the phrase someone used to describe the face you’re probably making was ‘Light Yagami’s O-face when he finally saw the Light drain from L’s eyes| Oh that little cunt! Just wait until she got back into this PET!

“Is there a problem, Ms. Kumegiya?” Akira quickly put on her best smile, trying her best to hide the fear from the teacher who was too good at doing her job. “I can’t tell if you’re looking at something funny or what.”

Fat Fuck decided to open his mouth. “Yeah, you look like, really evil. Did someone tick you off?”

“Oh yeah!” Akira said with a cute laugh. “I’m just feeling a bit vindictive!” And angry at her LRIG, which wasn’t new. “Thiis guy who kept flirting with me found my Navi and well, I’m teaching him a lesson.” It was obvious the teacher didn’t buy it, but the brats did, so small victory there. “Can I use the girl’s bathroom?” The teacher nodded and Akira quickly ran in, sat down, and locked the door. |I’m gonna put a magnet to this thing’s battery the second you get back in here, so I hope to god you make this count Piruluk!|

  
  


* * *

**ACDC TOWN, 12:11**

**SAKURAI RESIDENCE**

  
  


**SCAN COMPLETE**

**FILE SAVED IN (REDACTED)**

**TIME TAKEN: 9:22**

**ILLEGAL FILES FOUND: 0**

**TRACERS FOUND:0**

**MODIFICATIONS:0**

**QUARANTINED FILES:0**

**ROLL.EXE IS SHUTTING DOWN**

It was upon hearing the results from her bed that Mayl Sakurai could finally breathe. First it was MegaMan, then that LRIG LuckyRucky. The fact that MegaMan could even  _ see  _ Roll’s true form in her Level 0 Mode was worrying enough, nevermind why he was  _ now  _ able to see it, but the fact he was able to participate in a WIXOSS fight?! They couldn’t take any chances; Roll had to be taken off the Net so the admin couldn’t get to her, and thankfully the antivirus scan showed that everything was hunky-dory on that end.

So then that left Lan and MegaMan. And his dad. And possibly definitely Chaud. Now neither she nor Roll were paranoid enough to think that being arrested or detained would be in the cards with Lan’s dad on the case, it was the oh so gigantic anvil set to crush them should the admin consider what happened a violation of Code 22-A. Kinda hard to come clean when an unseen hand could Death Note you. “Oooooooo, this sucks!” She wrapped her pink pillow around her head and let out a scream. Just what the heck were her and Roll supposed to do?!

* * *

  
  
  


**HIROSABESOUTH AREA 1, 12:21**

**RESIDENTIAL AREA 2**

_ ‘I forgot…’  _ Piruluk thought angrily as the blue pest dodged more of her saff’s shots.  _ ‘This isn’t a WIXOSS battle.’  _ She was so eager to delete him that she forgot the giant albatross that hung over this form’s usability. This was a stealth form, nothing more, and without another LRIG in the area, she couldn’t Grow to get this over with as fast as she wanted.“Code Art, SML.” At least her Buster Shot had it’s full power again thanks to Akira’s presence.

MegaMan continued to dodge the Buster Shots from LuckyRucky, noting the damage values being recorded by his systems.  _ ‘Lan, please tell me I’m malfunctioning, because I can’t be reading this right!’ _

|WHY ARE THOSE BUSTER SHOTS BEING REGISTERED AT 200 DAMAGE?!| 

“I don’t know!” MegaMan yelled as he ducked into an alleyway, seeing his foe bring up a series of ice blue holographic screens. She definitely didn’t have this firepower last night! “Lan, she’s preparing to attack.”

|Attack with  _ what?!  _ I’m getting all kinds of glitchy information!| There was Chip data here, but the information was all scrambled! |I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s make a move before she does!|

MegaMan nodded in agreement and jumped between the alleyway walls to get to the top. “Ah, there you are.” LuckyRucky said as the two stared each other down. “Are you ready to die?”

“Nope!” MegaMan’s hand morphed into a gauntlet with a gatling gun barrel attached to the end. “VULCAN2!” 

Over the hail of gunfire, he didn’t hear LuckyRucky’s chuckle.  **“Freeze.”** MegaMan let out a cry of shock as the bullets froze and fell out of the air, his BattleChip deleted as his hand froze over. “Toooooo bad.”

“My hand!” Why can’t he load another Chip! “What did you do to me?!”

**CODE ART:SML**

**[CONSTANT] WHEN THE SIGNI IN FRONT OF THIS SIGNI ATTACKS, FREEZE THE ATTACKING SIGNI. (A FROZEN SIGNI DOES NOT UP DURING ITS NEXT CUSTOM SCREEN)**

**NO WIXOSS CARDS FOUND ON TARGET.**

**Disable Chip Upload into Navi program, and Delete currently Active Chip from Navi Battle Registry.**

“Hold on.” She aimed her Buster at him and fired. He managed to jump out of the way, intending to land on one of the buildings. Keyword being intend, as he found himself missing his jump by a wide margin and barely caught the building ledge before pulling himself back up. “Is your arm a bit too heavy?” She grinned; Sakaguchi was going to be saved, just a few more attacks! She shot energy from her staff, blowing off his arm, the force from the attack sending him to the ground screaming. “I was sure that the Girl Who Escaped told you about the rules of this game.” She said as she jumped to the building he was on and stared down at the groaning soon to be dead Navi below. Try as he might, he couldn’t get out of the Recycling Bin, the ice on his arm having increased in size so much that he couldn’t move. “Then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She was very glad she didn’t hack his PET’s comm feeds. She could hear him scream through hers loud and clear. “A healthy dose of fear is a good thing to have in this game, so I can commend her for that.” Another shot, this time taking out his leg, adding more mass to his arm. “A pity; had she been here, you could have used that trick of yours to stand a chance.” Next was his other leg, then his frozen arm. All the while she could hear the Navi scream, and Lan yelling on the bus for her to stop  _ ‘Guilt...I hate guilt.’  _ She shook the thoughts from her head; only one brunette was worth it! “But then again it really wasn’t your strength, was it?”

|Alright Piruluk, kill him! No stupid Navi makes a fool out of me!|

There was no retort from her to the ginger brat; she had a job to do.  _ ‘He has 1HP left.’  _ Thanks to her weakening her shots. “With you gone, she can live. Dante, Literary Work of-”

**ALERT! ALERT!**

**NETSAVERID: ROCKLIGHT HAS DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR**

**HIROSABESOUTH AREA 1!**

“NO!” She began to fire from both her Buster and Staff, but it was too late. The shots phased right through the Navi. “HE WAS RIGHT GODDAMN THERE!”

|Piruluk, what did you do?!|

**ILLEGAL OPERATION DETECTED. W(##$$#$#) NAVI DETECTED! CLASS V NAT CLOAK DETECTED JACKING OUT ALL USERS!**

Already feeling herself being pulled back, Piruluk let out a roar and jumped down to the streets, cracking the orb on the staff and raising the now bladed weapon as she charged at him. “I CAN STILL KILL HIM! I CAN STILL-”  **PIRULUK.EXE LOGGING OUT.** “DAMN IT!”

* * *

Akira pulled back, quickly muting her PET watching in horror as her LRIG thrashed around and presumably cursed up a storm. “Uhmmm… Piruluk?”

He was right there! SciLab laid him on a silver platter for her, and he was all alone in the 4th worst network on Honshu, and what did she do? Pull a damn _ Urith _ instead of shooting him in his Navi Symbol! And now thanks to that little stunt he pulled, she’d have to ask Wily to make a new NAT cloak! 

|Uhh Piruluk? You kinda look like me right now.|  _ Oh god.  _ She wiped the tears from her eyes, staring up to the screen showing Akira in a very rare moment of ‘concern’. |Look I really don’t care, but I really don’t want another one of me. So whatever beef you got with him, bottle it up and move on, ok?|

“....” That was the best she was going to get from her Selector sadly. “..Understood.” All of her problems could’ve ended there if she had just one more damn second! She could’ve ditched this worthless sack of dead weight, been Sakaguchi’s Navi! “I wish to be alone. Can you give me  _ that _ ?”

|Yeah sure. No way in hell am I gonna play therapist for you. Later!| Akira cut the video and audio feed, leading Piruluk to fall to her knees, her teeth gritted as her face showed a hatred people would rarely see from her. “Tonight... **_tonight…_ ** ” MegaMan was going to die by FlashMan’s hands  _ tonight,  _ she’d make sure of it! She didn’t care what Yuichirio Hikari upgraded him with, Sakaguchi was going to be free from that bed by the end of this week!

* * *

**SciLab Tokyo, 1:10**

**Parking Lot B**

The easiest part, getting here, became the hard part. Now the  _ actual  _ hard part was going to be the worst part of these kids’s day. They stood outside of their bus in an air conditioned parking lot, separated into groups as they were being screened for illegal contraband. They were all in groups of five save for Lan and his friends and the girl that was way too old to be in a class of 10 year olds. Everyone sans Lan’s friends and the girl -who didn’t care- was giving him a wide berth after the freakout he had on the bus, as no one wanted to know what the heck would cause the resident class clown to become so reclusive. Dex, ignoring Yai’s whispered mutterings to let his friend be, just had to know what the heck happened in the bathroom!

“Dude, Lan, the heck happened?” Angry and not bothering to look up to his friend, Lan showed Dex his PET. Dex nodded and shut up. Dex gulped, very very scared as he saw his best bro’s limbless Navi on the screen. Just that quick look Lan gave of his PET told him everything. Internet and communication functionalities were all disabled, and the PET was in safe mode until MegaMan could be put into a PC for repairs.  _ ‘Just who did he run into on the net?!’  _

{ACDC ACADEMY GROUP B, REPORT TO THE SECURITY GATE FOR INSPECTION}

Dex sighed in relief; just a few more minutes and no more standing! As the four of them walked to the gate, Yai moved to Dex’s side and nudged him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Keep quiet.” She warned with a whisper, and Dex nodded quickly. “Take a look at our new troublemaker.” Dex did and then looked back down to his foreheaded friend in confusion. “Ok, I’ll just come out with it. I think she has something to do with what happened to MegaMan.” She held out her PET. “I have proof, but we need to be away from her where her or her Navi can’t listen in. Afterschool, my Homepage, WAP encryption, got it?”

“Yeah…” Oh he got it alright. No one messed with an Ooyama’s friend and got away with it!

The ordeal didn’t take long, and they didn’t have to get naked or anything thank goodness. It was a simple metal gate scanner while they shut down your PET and it’s security systems to access and activate any illegal data. The invasiveness was uncomfortable, and the ride on the SciLab hover bus to it’s main office was filled with the scared whimpers of young kids worried that their parents might find out about something they weren’t supposed to.

“Glad  _ that’s  _ over.” All except for one ‘Mara Kumegiya’, who sat in the back of the bus, thankfully free from the tagalongs.  _ ‘I can’t believe I used to be afraid of those stupid scanners back then!’  _ Then again given the physical and mental benefits just being in the game granted a Selector, being paranoid about losing it all was justified. What  _ wasn’t  _ justified however was the fatass glaring at her every couple of seconds from a few seats ahead.  _ ‘First he wanted me, now he hates me?’  _ Whatever. As long as it wasn’t about her real identity, she could care less.

From the holster on the bus wall,GutsMan lowered his PET’s volume. |Stop drawing attention to yourself, Guts!| Dex quickly turned around in surprise as his Navi switched to text mode. |We can’t do anything now, Guts. Not only is Lan’s dad gonna be busy fixing MegaMan, there’s also that Netsaver stuff that’s gonna distract the both of them throughout this entire trip. Investigating this even with solid proof’s gonna take a while, so let it go for now, Guts.|

Dex gritted his teeth, clenching his fist as he counted in his head. “Fine fine.” He whispered as he leaned in his seat and crossed his arms. “Yai better have some good proof.”

* * *

**SciLab Tokyo, 1:26**

**SciLab Network Management Room, Areas 1 &2**

‘The Land of Tomorrow for the Man of Tomorrow.’ That was SciLab’s motto ever since its inception, and the SciLab of today kept true to that. An automatic walkway started from the door and went up the stairs and split into many different paths. An energy barrier supplanted metal guardrails that prevented anyone from going where they weren’t supposed to, and were on a manual generator that had no Cyberworld to hack. The windows were made of tempered glass to prevent any drone strikes against the facility like those perpetrated by two former terrorist organizations, and everywhere you looked in Sci-Lab, the future was all you could think about. Advertisements weren’t on paper or plaster, but holographic, and fully animated too. You  _ could  _ press a button to use the elevator, or use a hard light hologram that was a fully interactable facsimile of the elevator controls to go to the floor you wanted. You  _ could  _ get a free cup and get a drink of your choice,  _ or  _ with the press of a button near the water fountains or soda dispensers, make a hard light cup at the temperature of your choice! Scilab was like one of those restaurants that gave you multiple ways to serve you food, and Chiyori  _ loved  _ it here! Somewhat! Maybe, 33% of the time?

At just 14 years old, this up and coming prodigy not only managed to be at the top of her class consistently, but also land a job at Scilab, not as an intern or some glorified waitress, but working on the actual computers! “SciLab Area 2, clear. Mr.Progs 22-44 report no abnormalities in their areas.” It was boring as all get out for the brunette though. SciLab was strict, too strict, so super super stupid stupid stupid stupid strict! She wanted to wear her hair in pigtails, because she took the time to grow it out like Eldora’s and by god she wanted to show it off, but nope! Shoulder length hair! All her pretty pink and white and cute little nick nacks were a no-go too. Only a few of them were allowed, and even then she had to leave some of them at those stupid security gates. Now she looked like a secretary, complete with new glasses for her, so at least this stupid getup had some good come out of it! 

“All Navis with SciLab Operating Systems circa 1999-2005 have had their certificates checked. 88 Navis with outdated certificates have been barred entry until they were renewed.” Thisstupid shirt was grey, this stupid blouse was grey, and she couldn’t dress her hair up in funny styles or pretty colors! “Mr.Prog#44-DSC5 has given the all clear. Reopening Download Server Mikazuchi and restricting public access to File Indexes 22-12.” Aaaaand done! “Fi-na-lly!” She rolled her chair out into the middle of the aisle and let out a loud groan, making sure to straighten her glasses. “That took too long!  _ Please  _ tell me there isn’t anything else Eldora!”

Seeing as how there wasn’t anyone else in the room, her LRIG came on to the nearest screen next to her. |Nope! You’re all clear girl!| When Eldora was in combat, her fashion and looks were everything Chiyori wanted to look like, so bright, pretty, and, and this is very important,  **_COLORFUL_ ** . But in her Level 0 form, that was a whole different story. |Your lunch break is in five minutes, you want me to call ahead to the chef?| Whoever gave Eldora her Level 0 form really must have not liked her. She looked as dull grey as those old realistic American games from the old people times, no pomp, no flair. Her nice skin had a light bluish-gray tint, and above her black suit/skin she had a grey shirt on, with the letter L in darker grey. She had one of those underwear thingies old American superheroes wore, only hers was in the shape of a skull, and not like the cute skull-hat she had in her LRIG form, but a real, super boring human one. She wore shoes, if you could call those  _ things  _ shoes, with her black clad toes poking out. “Man it hurts looking at you, can’t you change!”

Eldora let out a nervous laugh as Chiyori pouted. |Nope, sorry! What you see is what you get!|

“Why?!”

Because she mouthed off to Mayu after getting her sixth body and this was what she got for her Level 0 as punishment. |I can’t tell you, that’s the rules!| At least she got her name back. ‘Sir Buzzkill’ was so not fun.

Chiyori crossed her arms and span in her chair. “Stupid rules.” She muttered, kicking the ground to continue the spin. “Call it in. I want-” Her PET beeped. “Ooooh, I recognize that noise!” She stopped spinning, taking a second to reorient herself before taking her PET out of her pocket. “There’s a Selector close by, in the building!”

Eldora narrowed her eyes.  _ ‘Of all the rotten luck!’  _ That cardboart cutout of an idol and her white LRIG were in the building already! |Alright, scope them out, but we are  _ not  _ fighting them, understand?|

Chiyori rolled her eyes as she bought the chair to the nearest Jack-In port and plugged her PET in. “Yeah yeah yeah..” Once Eldora was back home, the two were ready to go!  _ ‘It’s not like I’m gonna try fighting Iona! If I was that stupid, I’d never have gotten into SciLab!’ _

|Hey Chiyori, did you remember to save your work and send the file report in?|

“GRK!” Back to the workstation!

* * *

**SciLab Tokyo, 1:26**

**SciLab 1st Floor Lobby**

“Hello and welcome to SciLab!”

“Uh-huh.” Akira muttered as her and the rest of her ‘class’ got onto the automatic walkway. The tour guide began talking, but she tuned her out. She’d been here like twice for her school field trips, and the place hadn’t changed a bit.  _ ‘This sucks.’  _ No talking, no getting away from the group, and PETs were only to be bought out when the guide said so or if there was an emergency.

“SciLab was established by Dr. Thomas Light back in the city of Monsteropolis. In his prime, he was an excellent robotocist…” Boring boring  _ boring _ , she already knew this crap! And she could feel that stupid ninja teacher’s eyes on the back of her head, just  _ daring  _ for her to do something!  _ ‘Jokes on you bitch, I turned my PET off!’  _ Piruluk was taking a nice long nap, and wouldn’t wake up until the switch was turned on.  _ ‘I just have to play the part of the innocent girl and that stupid teacher won’t even pay me any mind!’  _ *Beepbeepbeepbeepbeeepbeep!* She nearly let out a curse, only to realize everyone else was bringing out their PETs. The walkway had stopped in front of an expensive looking diorama.  _ ‘Whew!’  _ She quickly bought out her PET and quickly turned it on. Which was going to take 3 minutes. A quick look around so she could know what the subject was bought her attention to a familiar diorama showing the past and future, the past a pre internet age Japan and the future showing how insufferable it was back when the Net became publicly available.

“Now, can anyone tell me what this diorama represents?”

Akira raised her hand. “I can!” 

The tour guide raised a brow.  _ ‘I recognize that voice from somewhere…’  _ Nah, it couldn’t be, she wouldn’t show her face in a place as prolific as this ever again! “Alright then little lady, what does this diorama represent!”

Akira smirked; easy-peasy. And it’d mean less time being here and waiting for these kids to think of the answer. “The diorama represents the ever-growing schism between robotics and network technology. The left side with all the primitive junk and figures in the old timey 90s clothes shows how that old stuff still has use in today’s world, and the right with all the hipster looking figures shows what society was like in the internet’s hayday. It's pretty outdated if you ask me.”  _ Way  _ outdated in fact. The students stared at her in shock, but she wasn’t paying attention to them. Why wasn’t this stupid thing taken off the tour? “Those hipster looking guys aren’t around as much anymore-” Thank god. “-And I haven’t seen old people wear clothes like this ever! Plus this thing’s just falling apart! The paint of the figures is fading, I think someone spilled soda on one of the buildings, and the paper background of the sky is wrinkled as all heck.”

The tour guide and Ms. Mari just stared before the former spoke. “Uhhh, that’s correct!” Yeah, definitely not Akira Aoi. “You sure know your dioramas!”

‘Mara’ shrugged, quickly activating the SciLab Learning App on her PET. “I know a lot of things.” She tried a lot of things to beat Iona, so she had a lot of useless shit rattling around in her head. 

“Good!” The tour guide congratulated. “It’s nice to see today’s youth so knowledgeable! Now, miss Kumegiya is correct…” And now time to tune out the tour guide again. Everything looked the same, only a bit gussied up, so she’d have a good 5 minutes of blathering to filter out before she needed to pay attention again. Suddenly her PET beeped, quite loudly in fact. It was a special type of beep, one that only a certain ‘select’ group of people could hear. A quick look at her screen showed 3 Selectors in the building. One was the kid with the Navi acting as an LRIG, one was one of the strongest WIXOSS players in the game with the most punchable face ever, and the other…Her eyes widened, a snarl coming onto her face for only a second.. **_Iona._ ** _ ‘The hell is she doing here?!’  _ She would ask Piruluk, but the LRIG looked at the data, nodded, and switched to text mode.

|I’ll send her a message not to interfere.| She told Akira, not that she needed to. The two girls were probably here to plant some bugs. And speaking of bugs…. |Where did the boy with the blue Navi go?|

Akira blinked. That’s a very good question, the hell’d he get to?

* * *

**SciLab Tokyo, 1:26**

**SciLab 5th Floor Lobby, Yuichiro Hikari’s Laboratory.**

|He’s getting off the elevator Iona. get him before he gets to his dad’s office.|


	7. WIXOSS Tutorial! a 34% complete explanation!

**SciLab Tokyo, 13:26**

**SciLab 5th Floor Lobby, Yuichiro Hikari’s Laboratory.**

  
  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE IS NOT RESPONDING.**

**WOULD YOU LIKE TO FORCE A SHUTDOWN? (Y/N)**

**Y**

**SHUTDOWN CANNOT PROCEED. MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44/PETDIRECTRY/SHUTDOWN.EXE UNRESPONSIVE.**

Growling with PET in hand, Lan continued his walk through dad’s labs, ignoring the scientists that passed him by. _‘Who was that Navi?’_ This WIXOSS stuff had to be some form of illegal modification program if it could power up a Navi’s Buster to that extent! And then there was what she did to MegaMan -no, not just him, the _PET. ‘Where are you dad?’_ There should be a holo-directory around here, where is it?!

“Excuse me, are you lost?” Lan heard a voice say as he walked. He never could find his way around this place. “Excuse me?” There were like, three rooms here! Just three! “Urith, he’s not paying attention.”

|That’s weird.| Urith bought up an app, the icon in the shape of a cartoon bat with big lips holding a magnifying glass. |He’s holding his PET pretty protectively...let’s see what’s going on.| **ACTIVATING I-SPYWILYEYE.EXE** . God, the old man and his stupid naming schemes. |Let’s see what he’s got on-| **CONNECTION DENIED.** Urith’s eyes widened. 

**PET COMMUNICATION PROGRAM IS OFFLINE.**

**PET SCREEN DISPLAY ERROR# 5353663 IS IN EFFECT.**

**PET JACK IN ERROR# 6642 IS IN EFFECT.**

**PET UI ERROR # 98293 IS IN EFFECT. UNABLE TO CONNECT TO PET.**

**INTERNAL TEMPERATURE OF PET COOLING COMPONENTS AT 2℃.**

|2 degrees c _elsius_ ?!| Urith seethed, grinding her teeth in her rage. |.... **_Piruluk_ ** _.|_ Iona raised a brow at her LRIG’s rare bout of anger. |Get his attention _now._ | She put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, squeezing hard enough to get him to stop. |I think I know what’s going on.| And who the old man’s gonna eviscerate if little miss ‘ Waaah! My stupid friend’s dying!’ is behind all this!

“Excuse me _young man._ ” Ignoring the creeping coldness that permeated those words, Lan quickly turned around to see a very tall and very attractive woman. Her hair was long and silky black, her skin fair and flawless. It was obvious she spent a lot of time taking care of herself, making sure every bit of her was perfectly presentable to the world at large. She wore a black lab coat with a black business suit under it, with a pure white tie that reached down to her knees. In her hands was a pitch black PET that was the same model as his, the buttons and handle a pure snowy white. Her black eyes were mesmerising, and not in the good way. Older people looking at him like that _never_ meant good news for Lan. “I can’t help but notice that you’re looking quite pale. Is everything ok?” Not to mention, he’d seen her before somewhere! 

“Uhhm, I’m good thanks.” Lan took a step away from her. “Could you direct me to Yuichiro Hikari’s office?”

Iona nodded, keeping her face passive. _‘Just where we were headed.’_ “I know the way, follow me.” The boy did so, Iona noticing he was keeping her distance and staring at her with suspicion. _‘Smart kid.’_ You wouldn’t think he had this much common sense given the records of how he acted when faced with a threat, but here you go. “May I ask how you got on this floor?”

“Sure, as soon as you tell me how you got here yourse-”

“Here we are.” Lan blinked, staring at the door that had a floating holo-sign with his dad’s name on it. He looked at that, and then at the elevator _right next to it._ “So, my question?”

“You first.” Iona stared blankly as she held out her ID, the boy doing the same a second after. Their PETs beeped, indicating the legitimacy of their cards. “Oh man!” The boy said with relief. “I am _so_ sorry! You looked too pretty to be up here, so I just thought you were up to no good.

“I get that a lot.” Iona replied as she took notice of his PET. “Your hand is trembling; is something wrong?”

“Umm?” He looked towards his dad’s office. “I’m not sure if you could help, but I’m having a problem with my PET, and I need my dad to help fix it and my Navi.”

Iona nodded her head in understanding. “No problem. We can probably use a previous version of his 3D model to store him in while we work on fixing his programming. Can you boot him up?” He shook his head. “Alright. I won’t be able to get into your father’s office, but I can probably use my Netsaver permissions in place of yours to access the necessary repair files, since my PET is working.”

Lan pondered that. “...That could work. Alright, let’s do it.”

Urith turned the volume down and began cackling. They wouldn’t be able to do much on that fortress of a PC, but this was a first step in getting their foot in the door that was the Hikari database!

* * *

**Japan National Route 4, 13:36**

Taking this road back home was not something Yuichiro preferred, especially during the lunch rush, but oddly enough, it looked as though there weren’t that many people on the road today.

“So uhh Mr. Hikari? Could you not talk about this WIXOSS stuff?” Which made it perfect for him to have a nice ‘talk’ with SciLab’s up and coming star. Sat in the back seat and looking like she didn’t want to be here, Chiyori kept looking at her PET plugged into the charger in the dashboard, everything but the basic interfaces disabled. “And can I go?” A quick look from him as he changed lanes gave her her answer. “Ok nevermind!”

“If you kept your mouth shut, this wouldn’t be happening.”

|Yeah Chiyori, what the hell?!|

  
  
  


**_20 minutes ago_ **

“I can’t believe I get to meet the legend himself!”

“That’s nice Chiyori.”

“You created the PET! You’re a legend!”

|Chiyori, leave the man alone and go to the cafeteria!|

“Not until I fangirl some more!” Yuichiro rolled his eyes as he continued his walk to his car. On any other day he would find her a blast to talk to! Everyone here was so droll and boring -when he wasn’t sharing his booze so they could all complain about their worthless, dumber than them higher ups in the government- but with his sons in danger? He had no time for this. “So Mr. Hikari, I was thinking of making my own PET, and..” She continued on and on, and she couldn’t _take a hint._

“Chiyori, I get your enthusiasm, I really do. But I have something very important to do.”

|For god’s sake girl, _read the room._ |

He finally got to his car and began to sift through his pockets for the keys. “I have to get some documents about something called ‘WIXOSS’ or whatever, and with how old it is, I doubt-”

“YOU’RE A SELECTOR?!” Both Eldora and Yuichiro winced from her volume, the latter thankful that no one was around to see this and the former….oh boy she wasn’t happy. “I’M A SELECTOR!”

Yuichiro quickly opened his car. “I’m sorry, Selector?” 

“Yeahyeahyeah!” She held up her PET to his face. Way in his face. As in the screen was touching his nose. “SEE? This is an LRIG!”

“....” Yuichiro pushed the PET away. “I see a very angry Eldora. She has that look on her face she gets when you blab things _you’re not supposed to._ ”

“What are you talking about? If you weren’t a Selector, I would’ve choked to death the second I started….talking…” Through their connection, she could feel Eldora’s simmering anger. “I screwed up, didn’t I?”

|I don’t know what the heck’s going on, but _yes. Yes you did.|_

“I second Eldora’s opinion.” Yuichiro said as he got into the car. “Back seat, now.”

“Uhh…” Chiyori began to slowly back away. “I got some important documents to perforate or whatever the word is, so if you’ll excuse me-”

**“Do it or you’re banned from the Netbattle Arena here.”** That got her to stop, and she quickly got into the passenger’s seat. “My family is in danger because of this stupid game, and I’m going to need you to verify some things. _Start talking.”_

“Y-YES S-SIR!”

  
  


**_Present_ **

|The fact that you didn’t feel your heart getting strangled didn’t tip you off that he was in the know, _Chidori?_ Now look at where we are!|

“My name’s Chiyori, _Eldodo_! And no, I didn’t know!”

“What’s this about hearts getting strangled?!” Eldora hissed in fear, hearing her Selector’s boss’s hands _squeeze_ the wheel as he made a hard turn.

“HA!”

|Not the time _Chidori!|_

“IT’S CHIYORI!”

“Urghhhh..” Oh this was going to go on for a while.

* * *

**SciLab Tokyo, 13:59**

**SciLab Network Management Room, Areas 1 &2, Diorama room 5**

“Actually the PET’s Jack-In function isn’t restricted by a data cap. Going on the Net is perfectly free, it’s just that you have to pay if you want to get to a webpage before the end of the century.”

“Thank you!” The tour guide said with forced, forced enthusiasm as the Akira-sounding girl finished talking. _‘I wasted five years in college just to get shown up by a teenager who flunked school so bad that she’s in a class with a bunch of_ **_kids_ ** _!’_ She didn’t get paid if the kids knew what they talked about, and this girl knocking her softballs out of the park before she could begin explaining was cutting into her check, all because those idiots at corporate didn’t think people like her were being too lazy on the job! “Now then, are you all ready for the final spot for the tour?” Oh she was gonna hit Yuichiro’s stash hard at the employee meet tonight! Her poor, poor paycheck… “Right this way please!”

_‘Yes! Just one more and I’m out of this dump!’_ And then she’d be able to have _a_ standard of living again, far away from mommy dearest! _‘And best of all, no Iona to bother me!’_ The ride continued in silence, going up ramps and over a bridge as holo-screens advertising SciLab products and her return to glory, the N1, buffeted her. Just her. Either because her PET didn’t support any modern version of pop-up blocking software, or someone was fucking with her . The little bastards and that bitch of a teacher with their fancy new PET’s probably couldn’t even see them! 

The walkway stopped in a large room. Two giant statues were positioned on the leftmost and rightmost walls. Both men were American, the right statue depicting a man with the largest beard Akira had seen, wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a tablet in one hand and a glass of liquid in the other. The statue on the left depicted a man that was the epitome of grouch. Everything about him screamed ‘I hate everyone around me and think I’m smarter than them.’ down to his grimace of disgust, the slouch, and the fact that not only was this the best depiction of the guy they found worthy of carving into stone, but the fact that he wore a wrinkled t-shirt and sagging pants without a belt on the day he had to pose for this statue. He may be one of the most abhorrent people ever, but Albert Wily was a man that Akira could respect.

The tour guide looked at the statue of Wily with disgust, same as everyone else on the tour. “As much as I don’t want to be in the same room as that _thing,_ it’s important to recognize his _positive_ contributions to society before we discuss the monster that he is today.” She zeroed in on the Akira sounding girl. “Miss Kumegiya, why don’t you take charge here?”

“Sure.” Akira cleared her throat. Just like when she was 12... “Dr. Albert Wily was born on January 7th, 1956, and is believed to be one of the oldest men alive. He has a Masters Degree in computer programming, five Bachelor Degrees from five different universities that he got because, and I quote, ‘I was bored out of my mind.’ He was the man who improved on the failed attempt at artificial intelligence made by the pre Neo Industrial Era companies like Apple and Honda, and while he worked with Thomas Light in creating AI, we can thank him for his amazing data compression tools.” She held out her PET and bought Piruluk on screen. “Without his amazing tools that had been refined over the decades, Piruluk’s 3D model combined with her memory banks would be over 155 Terabytes, but now it’s only four Gigabytes. Not only that, but even if she was freezing up from performing too many tasks, she would still be more powerful than the supercomputers of the post PET age. Now as for Dr.Thomas Light…”

And as Akira began to explain the history of the two most important people to today’s society, the entire class and teacher continued to be baffled. Just what was this girl doing here?!

**SciLab Tokyo, 14:10**

**SciLab 5th Floor Lobby, Yuichiro Hikari’s Office**

  
  


* * *

  
  


**MegaMan.EXE has been successfully**

**transferred to**

**HikariLab Homepage**

Iona sighed in relief, a rare look of frustration staying on her face. “Finally..the easy part’s finished.” She looked to where the kid was as he stared in horror at the dissected PET. given the extensive internal damage and software corruption, she had to get creative with just getting a good electrical current going through the main components, not to mention unfreezing enough of the main motherboard to get a good charge going, and getting some spare ribbon cables to even make this possible. “It’s not like it’s your Navi’s innards, don’t worry.” If the buttons were still working, she would’ve gotten this done four minutes after booting the computer up and starting the repair program, but Piruluk was, as always, incredibly thorough when using her powers.. She didn’t even want to _think_ about how long this PET was operational under these conditions. 

“I’m not worried about that!” Lan yelled. “Where did all this _ice_ come from?! I don’t know what half this stuff is but I know it shouldn’t have **_ICE_ **on it! How is this possible?!”

Urith came onto the screen. |I’m confused about that myself.| Just what in the world was Piruluk thinking?! That power was to keep WWW’s resident edgelord in line, _not_ to blow the lid on their biggest secret! |What do you think’s going on Lan?|

“UHhh…” Wow, this had to be the creepiest Navi he’d ever seen. He remembered watching that old anime Death Note, where that Light guy couldn’t keep the smile off his face when he was going to murder someone. She was on _that_ level of creepy. She looked like some creepy cross between Alice in Wonderland and Snow White, but all her clothes were monochrome. Her large, blonde pigtails were twice as big as her body, sticking out from the back of her giant hood and decorated with pieces of candy that were put into her hair without any rhyme or reason. Her dress was made up of...he wanted to say the stuff made of gummy bears? That’s what that texturing on her dress looked like, with the translucency layer helping sell it. Her cheeks had two smiley stickers on them, and on her hands were two giant gummy worms coiled around her and going up to her bare shoulders. _‘She’s trustworthy….right?’_ She couldn’t get on dad’s computer otherwise! “Well, when WWW first started making themselves known publicly, they somehow managed to get my oven to uhmm...spew fire?”

|I’m sorry, what?!| Urith yelled with fake surprise.

“Yeah, it’s weird! I don’t even get how that was possible!”

“The Elemental Programs were something far beyond our comprehension.” Iona said as she resumed typing, opening up the command console to get into WWW’s greatest enemy. “It’s amazing that the Cyberworld was built off of their data with how little anyone understood them.” Deleting him right now wasn’t a good idea. Not only would it piss Urith off, but they had no escape route, and brazenly deleting a Navi this important here of all places would require months of planning just to get out the building. This repair job was also using the highest level of permissions available, and just her luck, the level of security she was at had records of MegaMan’s original schematics that Yuichiro Hikari could just glance at to find any surprises she might leave. _‘I have no choice but to fix him up.’_ Wily wasn’t going to be happy with this. “I’m going to load up his BIOS files.” She told the kid, Netty was it? She went silent for a few minutes until an error message popped up. “Just like I thought. Do you have any Giga Chips that you loaded into your Navi recently?”

Lan reached into his pocket and pulled out one. “This one, why?”

“We’re going to sacrifice it.” Iona answered as she took the Chip from him and put it into the Chip Reader slot on the front of the processor. _‘PlanetManV5?’_ So he was strong enough to be put in the strongest class of the strongest class of BattleChips; commendable. If he were still alive, he’d be proud. “You do know about Chip Processing right?”

“...what?”

Figures. “I’m going to use the microprocessor in this Giga Chip to trick MegaMan’s systems into thinking it’s a power source. He’s so error ridden and corrupted that his systems should accept a virtual power source.” A confirmation sound from the computer proved her right. “And now that I proved that, I can get to work.” 

“Miss Iona, what did that do?” His legs feeling tired, Lan sat down in the nearest chair. “What’s going on?”

|We’re going to use this Chip’s internal processor.| Urith explained. | Since it’s been used by your Navi so much, it’s become accustomed to his exact specifications, and he needs to have a system clocked to his speed to even get the auto-repair working. Try to use the computer, and your Navi- Or what’s left of him |-could lock up entirely!| She let out a laugh. |It’s like using someone’s freshly cut off hand to fool a DNA scanner!|

“Ohhh I get it!” Lan exclaimed. Yeah, still creepy. She hid it well, but you didn’t get the ability to convince someone as uptight as Yai to go onto the R-18 sections of the Undernet on a daily basis without having an eye for a creeper or two.“Hey, maybe you can look up this WIXOSS thing! He promised to talk about it with dad, but since dad isn’t here...they _were_ trustworthy, right? Hopefully?

Iona typing code into the command prompt, taking a second to scroll down to the Notepad app to type |How is he still alive?|

Urith switched to text mode. |Beats the hell out of me! I don’t even sense a single WIXOSS Card on him, and he doesn’t even feel like a Selector! As for any funny business on this thing, don’t even try. This thing recorded us coming into the room! My ID and your PET’s serial number is already on file, and I can’t do a thing about it!|

Once Ionae typed in the first 20 lines of code -and cursed Dr.Hikari for making her enter all this _manually-_ She resumed typing in Notepad. |You think MegaMan might have any beneficial programs? He was used by the Girl Who Escaped to attack from a distance, so there might be residual data that might trick the WIXOSS Network into accepting him.|

|Probably.| Urith typed with the biggest smile on her face. |Go into his System44 folder and see!|

“I’m going to access his System44 folder.” Iona told the young boy. “Is that ok?”

“Yeah.”

  
  


**MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44**

**Cyberworld Interface (222 folders)**

**Program Files(443 folders)**

**Program Files X86 (443 folders)**

**(ERROR! SCILABOP FOLDER LOCKED!)**

**ERROR! BATTLENETWORK FOLDER LOCKED!)**

Iona narrowed her eyes as Urith opened the error logs for each folder. That...that doesn’t happen. That could never happen to a still functioning Navi. Not even Piruluk’s ice could do this much! ScilabOp was needed for a Navi to even _live,_ and yet MegaMan was just in stasis! “Urith, open up the Properties. See if any programs are using these folders.”

  
  


**FOLDERS IN USE**

**MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44/ SCILABOP**

**MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44. BATTLENETWORK**

**FOLDERS ARE BEING USED BY :** **MEGAMAN.EXE/SYSTEM44/BATTLENETWORK/WIXOSS.BIOS. DECK COLOR: WHITE/BLUE/BLACK/RED/GREEN/CORORLESS**

  
  
  


“....” Colorless. **COLORLESS.** |Urith, we have to train him, now. I can get him up to factory settings at the moment, and that’s the best I can do.|

|That’s good enough!| Urith’s cheeks tinged pink. Manipulation was one of her passions, and getting him away from their idiotic ace in the hole with the least amount of effort possible made what was next all the more worth it!

Iona motioned the Hikari boy to her and handed him her PET. “I’m going to show you how-” She stopped, just for half a second, as if waiting for something to happen. “-how WIXOSS works. LRIGs, SIGNI, you’re about to learn it all. Urith, boot him up.”

|With _pleasure._ |

* * *

  
  


**SciLab Area (RESTRICTED) 14:00**

**Yuichiro Hikari’s Server**

MegaMan’s eyes shot open as screams came from his lips. “WHAT’S GOING ON?! WHERE AM I?!” He felt so heavy and yet so light, just what the heck happened to him?! A quick look down at his arms gave him a pretty good hint, and feeling the electronic eye display and lack of mouth on his face confirmed his fear. “..I’ve been Defaulted?!” This was the body Dad gave him during testing, the _first round_ of testing while facial animation testing was underway! How did this happen?!

“You don’t look so good!” MegaMan’s hand formed into a Buster immediately upon hearing that. That voice sent up so many warning alarms in his head. “LuckyRucky did a number on you huh?” He quickly got up and began charging his Buster. “Don’t bother. With the state you’re in, you’d be lucky to shave off 5HP even _with_ that Charge Shot! And besides…” Suddenly he was face to face with the creepiest, fakest Navi he had ever seen. “I’m here to help you.”

|She’s right MegaMan.| That was Lan’s voice! But why was it coming out of a different PET? |That Aqua Navi messed you up pretty bad, and this weir- I mean pretty lady helped out!|

“You heard your NetOp.” The girl explained as she slowly walked around him in a circle. “LuckyRucky’s been a pain our asses for a long time. She’s frozen countless PETs and deleted even more Navis, all for the sake of-” She stopped in front of him, a hint of nervousness on her face, as if she expected something to happen. “-Becoming an Eternal Girl.” She let out a sigh of relief as she continued talking and circling. “The fact that you survived would either mean you’re an LRIG or really lucky, and thankfully for you, it’s the former.” Before MegaMan could respond, he was suddenly inside a foreign PET with five targets of different colors at the other end. “Shall we begin?”

He didn’t hear any nervousness from Lan when he said they were going to help them. Something was still off, and he was sure Lan picked up on that, but this was the best shot they had to fight against that kind of power. “Alright, let’s go.”

Urith smiled warmly and snapped her fingers. **LOADING UP WIXOSS TRAINING PROGRAM#1.** “Hey kid, we’re doing this dual-screen style! See anything different on my PET?”

* * *

  
  
  


“Yeah!” Lan exclaimed. “It’s glowing black!” How could something glow black?!

Iona quickly took the PET from him and fiddled around with the settings. “Trust me, you don’t want that happening.” She warned as she gave it back. “ Word of advice; never try to take a Selector’s PET without permission. Can you see it now?”

“Yeah.” Lan took a good look at the interface. “This is a weird way of selecting BattleChips.”

|That’s because you’re not selecting BattleChips.| Urith explained, drawing Lan’s attention to the computer screen where her and MegaMan’s current body were. |That’s a WIXOSS Table, and instead of BattleChips, we use WIXOSS Cards. Does the setup remind you of anything?|

“Yeah!” It looked like one of those mats they used for those old timey card games. There were three rows to put cards on the mat. The four slots at the top were labeled ‘SIGNI Zone’, the next row’s two lots having an ‘LRIG Zone’ on the right with the words ‘LRIG deck’ written in a tiny bubble, a slot with ‘Check Zone’ on the left with an arrow pointing left to an area called the ‘Ener Zone’. At the bottom of the mat were seven slots, each of them labelled ‘Life Cloth.’ At the far right were two slots labelled ‘Trash, and ‘LRIG trash respectively, and above that was a slot called ‘Main Deck.’ the same layout was on the other side of the interface but mirrored, obviously the opponent’s side of the field. “Isn’t this kinda clunky?”

|Trust me it is, but what are you gonna do?| Urith said with a shrug. |Touch the deck icon on the upper right to draw your first hand.|

Lan did as asked and….wow. _‘At least they don’t look like real girls.’_ “So I’m seeing numbers on the bottom left of the card; is that how much damage they deal?”

|Yep! You have no idea how many people don’t get that on their first try! Pick one!| Lan touched the 2nd card to the right, the one with the cool green armor and watched as it went from the PET to the computer screen. |This card is a SIGNI|

  
  
  


**†SLOT†, WRETCHED PLAY DEVIL**

**CARD TYPE: SIGNI**

**COLOR: BLACK**

**LRIG LEVEL: 3**

**LRIG RESTRICTION: URITH ONLY**

**CARD ABILITIES: CONSTANT(???)**

**ON-PLAY(???)**

**LIFE BURST (???)**

  
  
  
  
  


|Why is all of that information blurred out?| MegaMan asked.

|Because it’s not relevant at the moment.| An arrow pointed to the word SIGNI. |SIGNIs are your main method of defense and offense. A minimum of 50 cards is required to be in your deck before you can fight using the WIXOSS system, and that minimum must be filled with a preset amount of SIGNI| The arrow then slid down to the word ‘color.’ |Pretty obvious what this means here. There are five colors in WIXOSS, though you may or may not find LRIGs without a color. I primarily deal with Black cards, so my primary playstyle is manipulating the amount of cards or Chips that either me or my opponent discarded.|

The arrow then slid to the word ‘level’ |I’ll go over how this works soon enough, but let’s just say you’re gonna have a bad time if you don’t look at that before you play.| Next up, card abilities. |This one-|

“Hey, why’d you skip the LRIG restriction thing?” Lan asked. “You have to be a NetSaver to get Navi restricted Chips, so is it something similar to this Wi-cross stuff?”

|No, and you get special cards like that if you play well. As I was **_saying-_ **| The Hikari brothers flinched. |-Card Abilities are one of the biggest changes when switching from BattleChips to cards. While a BattleChip’s effect is only limited to a certain range and maybe can affect an enemy Navi, a card with good abilities can not only do that, but affect the way you select your weapons, and if you use it on a Navi, you can totally screw with their systems!| Oh that anger coming from the two when she said that! They must be thinking of the ice queen! |One of †Slot†, Wretched Play Devil’s abilities let me alter the weapon’s power level, so if I had 15 cards or 30 Chips in the Trash, then it goes from 7000ATK to 12000!| With just a thought, the card’s weapon appeared in MegaMan’s hand, a giant yellow stick with a watermelon at the end. |If you’re gonna complain about the weapon, don’t bother.| Mayu had her sit in on LRIGs complaining about the same thing far too many times. |Since this is a training exercise, the limits on this card are restricted. You can attack as many times as the level on the card before the data expires.| The training dummies were bought closer. |Try it out!|

MegaMan stared at the weapon. He wasn’t receiving any User Data, so the other condition’s aren’t valid at the time? With a shrug he jumped high into the air, smashing the red training dummy into a pulp.

**TRAINING DUMMY RED**

**-7000HP**

**CURRENTHP LEFT:33,000**

MegaMan and Lan took note of that. “That’s like Roll’s and LuckyRucky’s.” The blue Navi said to himself. 

|You’re correct.| He heard Urith’s NetOp say, as five cards appeared above Urith’s head. |An LRIG’s HP count at most reaches 280,000.| She ignored both boy’s exclamations and continued unabated. |Normally an LRIG has seven Life Cloths, and after 40,000 damage is dealt, that Life Cloth is removed. If all 7 are removed outside of a WIXOSS fight, then the LRIG is put into Sleep Mode.|

|Sleep mode…| Lan muttered. |That shouldn’t be possible.|

|So’s a Navi having over 2000HP. Speaking of which, a card’s color doesn’t determine it’s element, the weapons on the card art do.| The arrow went to the weapon that the girl on the card was holding. |That means that MegaMan is currently holding a Grass-Element weapon, and therefore is subjected to the same damage properties as a BattleChip. Urith, load up an ARTS.|

* * *

  
  


Lan watched a card replace the one on the screen. “Arts? Like magic arts?”

“Yes.” Iona entered a few commands on the touch screen. “If SIGNI are like BattleChips, then ARTS can be considered MegaChips or even GigaChips.” She swiped the deck to the right and said ‘ARTS list.’ “Do you notice anything in particular?”

“Yeah!” Lan’s eyes were positively gigantic! “HOW MANY OF THESE ARE GIGA CLASS?!”

MegaMan was just as shocked|WHAT KIND OF MODS ARE YOU RUNNING?!|

“I think twelve, and I don’t use mods. Don’t get your hopes up. These things have a lot more restrictions than GigaChips.”

|Like the fact you can’t deal direct damage with them!| Urith said with a hint of anger. 

“ARTS can modify attack values on cards and make it so that their abilities are altered or nullified. For example, Urith and I-” 

A pop-up came up on screen- |WHAT THE HELL?!| -And sent Urith flying a good five inches away. |What kind of low grade computers is this place running?!|

“That’s not some ad..” Lan muttered, his eyes widening as he read it. 

**HEEEY YUICHIRO!**

**THIS IS MR.PROG #42442!**

**I NOTICED YOU WERE OUT OF THE OFFICE SO I’M SENDING THIS TEXT THINGIE TO LET YOU KNOW THAT YOUR SON’S MISSING!**

**SO YEAH, GET ON THAT!**

“The school trip!”

|Wait, we’re still on the trip?!| MegaMan exclaimed. |I thought we’d be home right now...where is he?|

“We’re in dad’s lab, he’s out for business, where he is I don’t know.” Lan answered as he began sifting through his dad’s desk drawer. “Come on, I know it’s there...yes!” He pulled out a PET, a rather old looking, blocky relic that he had to blow the dust off of. “It’s been a while since dad gave me this!”

“Is that a sub-PET?” Iona asked as Lan connected it to the computer and began downloading his Navi onto it. “I didn’t think they still made those.”

“They don’t publicly, at least that’s what dad says.”

“I see.” You’d have to have gotten into some pretty deep trouble if you had to get a Sub-PET. Can’t NetBattle, can’t load BattleChips, and it’s internet connection was so weak you could only use it for basic browsing and nothing else. “If you want, I can Email the rest of the tutorial for you.”

“That’d be good thanks!” Lan said as he watched the slow, slow progress bar. “Man I forgot how-” The download paused. “Huh?!” This thing wasn’t out of date, what was going on?!” Iona tapped his shoulder and pointed him to the computer screen.

Where Urith was kissing MegaMan full on the lips, and she didn’t stop for a full minute. “I can’t wait to battle you.” She said as sweetly as a grown man baiting a kid into his unmarked van. 

“Uhmmm.” MegaMan backed away as Urith unpaused the download. The last thing he saw was her unsettling, predatory smile, and the last thing he heard was a whisper in his ear that left him speechless when he got into the Sub-PET.

“Congrats!” Lan cheered, not seeing the obviously not happy look on his brother’s -lack of- face. “Could you mail the rest of MegaMan’s repair data to my computer? I have a friend who can get him back to tip-top shape, and I _really_ don’t want dad to find out what happened!” Kotobuki was bad enough, and they barely got out of that unscathed? But _this?!_ “So could you keep it private, just between us?”

Iona nodded as Urith let out a giggle. |Data sent! Isn’t it nice to have friends in high places?|

“Yep! I can’t thank you guys enough! I thought you two were creepy-” Still do “-But you guys have been more up front about this stuff than Chaud!” He made a small pout as the progress bar reached 98%. “He probably already knows about this stuff and didn’t tell me because I’m ‘too immature.”

“He does get like that.” Iona ‘agreed’.

|Guy’s got a stick up his ass a mile long.| Urith went back to her PET and shut the computer down. |Anyway, stuff’s mailed, read it on your own time, we gotta go!|

“Alright cya!”

Urith waited until the kid got onto the elevator before she began laughing so hard that Iona quickly turned the volume down. |I can’t believe I kept a straight face there!| She texted. |I don’t think I told a single lie there, and I still wanted to laugh in his face!|

Iona shook her head as she began walking to her room. “This was the most truthful you’ve ever been with someone other than me. I’m impressed.”

|Yeah well, he’s worth it.| Urith explained. |And plus with the demonstration, he and his NetOp almost trust us!| Iona narrowed her eyes slightly at her. |Look, I’m not gonna jinx it! I can hold myself in for this, it’s worth it! Well, _he’s_ worth it to be exact, and with the right prodding, he can be just as messed up as I am!| Urith blushed like a schoolgirl as she sent the message. Iona never wanted to see that ever again. |We got a few hours left before the shoot; let’s get the ice queen in hot water!|

“No.” Urith just stared blankly from the rebuttal. “We will relax first, contact our friend second, photoshoot third, then we punish her. Sunayama is coming to meet us anyway, so he can make the perfect spectacle out of her incompetence.”

|Ooooh, I like the way you think! Let’s do it!|

On the elevator, Lan was just happy to get his brother back. MegaMan however, felt as though he had just been violated, and from a simple kiss no left! The devil was in the details, and after that Navi did who knows what with his systems, he was going to have Glyde give him a long, hard scan and sweep when he got home.

  
  
  
  



	8. Akira meets an old friend! An uneasy alliance is formed!

**???? World**

“Miyu Katsuragi two losses, Momo Matsumomo 2 losses, Miyubi Matsutame…” A total of 44 future LRIGS were in her que, each with their own wishes and desires, all in stasis, three different kinds in fact. Memory stasis that overloaded their currently tiny processors, preventing them from booting up, A code that put them in Sleep Mode automatically, and the pain from being transferred from neurons and lobes to 1s and 0s. Mayu grinned, situating herself in her skull-shaped throne. As she went over her list. Which unlucky girl’s life would she get to see _shatter_ first?

It didn’t take long for her to choose. “Hello new victim!” She calmed herself and held out her hand. From her white, skull shaped throne, Mayu grinned at the teenaged girl she put in ridiculous clothing. Congratulations, Miyubi Matsutame.” She said ‘cheerfully’ to the confused 14 year old girl. “You are now an Eternal Girl.”

The green-haired girl in question blinked as she looked around. “...Where am I?”

Ah the beauty of being a digital being; she didn’t have to remember her lines. She pulled up a holo-screen, one only she could see and interact with, and began to read from it “My apologies young child, but I-”

_**INCOMING MESSAGE!**_

“I’m afraid that your desire for your friend to reciprocate your feelings will never come true...in a sense.”

“W-what do you mean?!” Miyubi nearly screamed, remembering the last battle. “I had to go to the freakin Undernet for this fight, on the principal's computer! This is all I have left!”

And that’s why this was so funny! “Yes, your break-in and assault was indeed praiseworthy, and showed your dedication to fulfilling your wish. However-”

_**INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!**_

“......” Her calm facade nearly broke. _‘Stupid message thingie!’_ “ **But** rejoice! Your wish has been granted! Allow me to-”

“I thought you said my wish hadn’t been granted!”

“...I said _in a sense._ Now young child-”

“Oh _ **god**_!” Oh, just keep interrupting her! “What did I agree to?! I spent five months with Chiro for this! What’s gonna happen to me?! What’s going to-” Miyubi blinked. “I-is that a _skull throne?!_ ”

Oh why did she let daddy have a say in the interior decoration?!“Yes. But it is not-”

“Oh my god, Anne was right! this game was pure evil!”

“Now I don’t-

_**INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!**_

“This place is like one of those evil villain lairs in those dumb JRPGs! Oh god oh god oh god oh god!”

_**INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!**_

_**INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!  
INCOMING MESSAGE!**_

**“...............I SEE.** ” Mayu gave the girl, Miyuko-whatsit, a flat look. “System Restore to five minutes ago.” The second she finished her sentence, Whatsherface’s body froze in place mid panic. “Excuse me for a second.” Was the girl conscious? Probably. She rarely used that ability to shut them up. She then teleported out of the throne room and into one of the many gardens. “What now?!”

_**WIXOSS TROUBLESHOOTING REPORT  
SENDER: URITH.EXE  
THREAT LEVEL: ALPHA  
VIOLATION 44-A  
LRIG&SELECTOR IN VIOLATION: PIRULUK.EXE&AKIRA AOI  
VICTIM: MEGAMAN.EXE **_

“Uh-huh….” She teleported back to Miyuwhosits, opened up a portal, and shoved the former human in to live out the rest of her miserable existence in the Cyberworld. “Oh nonononono…” She should’ve gotten this the _instant_ the code was violated! Violation44-A dealt with a Selector and LRIG pair misusing their powers in such a way that it could blow the lid on WIXOSS without triggering the curse! And of all people, _Piruluk_ was the one?! _‘This sucks!’_ She opened up a comm screen. _‘Daddy’s going to have to know about this…’_

**BOWEL CLEANING  
BE BACK TONIGHT.**

And that was the message she received. “....” Guess she’ll have to wait until tonight. Daddy was gonna be double angry tonight!

But first, she had to clear as much as this que as possible. Age equaled experience when it came to her powers, and she lacked both by a considerable margin. It sucked being so young.

* * *

****

****

**SciLab Tokyo, 14:44  
SciLab Wait Room #5**

“Uhh Maryo?”

Akira rolled her eyes at the kid as she opened her ‘Super Duper Science Gal’ bag the guide gave her and opened up the can of tea inside. She was in the back of the waiting room, far away from the rest of the brats, sitting on a pretty comfy sofa with her legs crossed. “It’s Mara; what do you want?”

“Why are you in our class?”

“That’s none of your business.” Because Piruluk was a bitch. “Anything else?”

The kid looked away for a second before holding out her PET. “Can I have your contact info? You’re really smart, and-”

*VRRR! VRRR!* Akira groaned as she bought out her own PET. “Hold on, I gotta take this.” She bought it out of sleep mode. “What?”

|Do it.| Piruluk typed. |It will help your standing if you get some good press in time before the N1|

“Hmm..” She looked at the kid, then back at Piruluk. _‘That’s not a bad idea.’_ “Alright.” She put her PET back into sleep mode and turned to the kid. “I’ll help you, but once we get back to school. Got it.”

“Thanks!” The girl smiled and ran back with a giggle.

Akira chugged her tiny can of tea. God this was gonna be a shit first night. First with this kid, and figuring out how to threaten her shithead LRIG into explaining herself.

Ms.Mari looked at her PET’s clock, grumbling to herself. “Where is he?” She sent that Mr.Prog that message five minutes ago! It wasn’t that much of a trip to his dad’s lab!

*DING!*

The elevator doors opened, Lan coming out with a nervous look on his face. “Sorry about that guys, I had some bad food last night.” Some of his classmates glared, irritated that they had to wait for him, while the others ignored him, having become immune to the Hikari Lateness Syndrome. Ignoring the glares with a nervous grin, he sat down next to Dex and Yai, and when no one was looking he simply whispered ‘NetSaver Business.’ The two nodded in understanding as Ms.Mari uploaded their homework to their PETs. It was time to go.

And as the class departed the building, a man in a red cowboy hat watched them from the upper floors, grinning as he held his cactus patterned PET. “DesertMan, get ready for a casting call.” Tonight was going to be a showstopper.

* * *

**ACDC Academy, 16:00  
Class 2-A**

The class had emptied for the day, with the last student having finished cleaning up before going home. That left Ms.Mari at her desk to go over the lesson plans for the next few days one more time just to be sure it was perfect, and the ball of sunshine that started here today.

_‘Where is it, where is it?’_ Akira thought, tapping on her desk impatiently as she looked at her PET’s clock. _‘I want to get out of here!’_ No way was she going home, but damn it she hated helping people! That little twerp left to watch some show, so now all she had to do was wait for her ride to pick her up! But it.wasn’t.here yet! “Piruluk, call them!”

|I did. They said that there would be a delay due to them transporting another client.|

“Oh of fu-” The teacher’s eyes darted up towards her. “-dging _cours_ e it is! Gee _willikers_ that’s _**annoying!**_ ”

“Yes, I bet it is.” Ms.Mari said as she went back over her work. _‘Port replacement and repair? That’s going to take a lot out of my budget, but it is important._ “Also if you’re wondering where your ride is, you’re not getting one.”

Akira’s grip tightened so much that it cracked her PET’s handle. “ _ **What?**_ ”

“You live in this school now.” _‘The new PET model is going to have wireless Jack-In technology. I know that modern devices have it, but how am I going to approach this..?’_ “As part of the deal to let you stay here, you live in the dorms rent free, like anyone grade 12 or above.” She didn’t need to look up to see Akira’s shock; she could probably _hear_ her pupils shrink in shock if she could. “It’s five floors above here, six doors to the right of the eleva-” With a flurry of rapid footsteps, she was gone. “Did she seriously not know that?” Her PET’s hardware had enough power to support her Navi, surely it could receive a private Email. _‘Eh, she probably deleted it.’_ It wasn’t like her Navi purposefully hid the information or anything!

* * *

The elevator door closed behind Akira as she put in the floor number and held her PET up close to her face. YOU LITTLE SHIT!” Another ding in the jar.

|Your nostrils are very clean.|

“......” The elevator began to slow down. “You know what?” She said as the door opened, taking a deep breath as she walked out into the hall. “Not worth it; you’re not worth it.” Now was it left or right from the elevator. “I finally moved out of my worthless house with my worthless mom, and now that I have a room to myself-” She missed Piruluk’s snort. “-You’re not going to ruin it for me!” She turned right, trying to remember the room number when the light of the sun caught her eye. “Dam-darn it…” Once her eyes adjusted, her attention was brought to the scenery outside.

Wordlessly, she pressed her hand against the window, staring at the city below. A clean city, an average city. |Akira?|

“I’ve almost forgotten what this looks like.”

|Akira?|

Ignoring her LRIG, the incognito ginger focused her attention on finding her room. Where in the world was it? “Uhmm, excuse me? Are you new here?” Akira’s and Piruluk’s eyes widened; they recognized that voice! “You!”

“A-Akira?!” The girl in question quickly turned and much to her displeasure, it was _her_. “Is that you?!” Long brown chocolate hair, smooth skin, brown eyes, all part of the generic everyday girl look belonging to one of the most Akira’s most hated people next to Iona. “You look..different.”

* * *

**ACDC Town, 16:00**

**Public Walkway 1**

The best time to use the walkway when you wanted to get home without overcrowding was around this time. There weren’t that many people going to and from their jobs around this time, and this part of town didn’t have much of, if any, of a nightlife. This meant that three kids, Dex, Lan, and Yai could travel alone at sundown with only the surveillance cameras as their only guardian.

Currently the three were sitting at a bench in front of a long row of potted plants running alongside the wall, protected by a glass dome.In Yai’s hands was Lan’s SubPET, taken apart and connected to her own via ribbon cables. Why something so extreme? Because SubPETs suck. The two boys hovered over her, anticipation written all over their faces as she looked at the “Yeah I don’t think I can do this.” She said to Lan in a matter of fact tone. “The code MegaMan’s running now is way out of date. It’s so old that neither Glyde nor my PET’s systems can understand it.” One of her friends being forced to use a _**SubPET**_ , the poor _er_ man’s hand me downs, was absolutely revolting to her. Once Lan and MegaMan could tell them what the heck was going on, that LuckyRucky girl was going to pay for messing with her people! _‘Is this C++?!’_ That was the equivalent of giving an olympian an iron lung to breathe! How was MegaMan so powerful?!

“Just wait till I get my hands on that Luckywhatsername!” Dex growled. “GutsMan and I are gonna pound her into dust!” His Navi let out a very enthusiastic “GUTS GUTS!” in agreement.

“You’re gonna have to get in line. “Lan muttered as Yai began to put his PET back together. “MegaMan forced an automatic logoff for an entire region. Right now Chaud’s probably going over the footage.”

“Yeah that’s right!” Dex exclaimed. “ProtoMan’s gonna pound that hooded weirdo in the dust!”

Lan looked at his PET as Yai finished reassembling it, unsure of that after what he’d seen. “Alright Lan, I’m done. “ She handed it back to him. “I’m going to bring Glyde out of sleep mode and have him analyze anything I might have missed. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you some good news by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thanks Yai.” Lan would kiss her if he didn’t fear she’d bite him!

“No problem.” The heiress said back as she got off the bench. “What are friends for? Now let’s go home; Mayl’s gonna flip when she sees what happened!”

“Yeah you lucky stud you!” Dex congratulated with a heavy pat on the back as the two went on their way, leaving Lan alone as MegaMan booted up.

“Mayl huh?”

* * *

“....”

“...Ru-Ru…”

“Akira.”

“... _Ru-Ru…”_

“It’s Ru _ko.”_

|AND MY NAME’S TAMA!|

“What the heck are you doing here?”! Akira nearly shouted.

“I could ask you the same thing!” The brunette countered.

“I go to school here!” Akira shouted back, looking at Ruko’s clothes. “You sure as hel- _heck_ don’t!” That is the fanciest freaking black suit she’d ever seen! Business tie, low cut collar, white cuffed sleeves and- “Those shoes had to have set you back a good ¥65,000!

Ruko blinked. “...These are the clothes for valedictorians and student government leaders. I got this stuff for free!”

“Good for you.” Akira replied with a snort; lucky bitch.

“Now what are you doing here?” Ruko countered. “You’re up here, not even in your uniform, it’s like you-” She narrowed her eyes and held out her PET, her LRIG waving cheerfully at Akira. “I see how it is.”

“Uh-uh,no-no _freaking_ _**no!**_ ” Akira quickly pocketed hers and held her hands out. “I’m not doing that right now; I’m just here to find my room, and nothing else.” ‘Ru-Ru’ continued her glare. “I’m serious! I’m on the up and up now!”

|Oh wow she’s right Ruko!| The LRIG, Tama, proclaimed. |Tama just got an Email from Piruluk, and she has the creden..creeden..crudent-|

Akira groaned. “Credentials.” Fucking moron. 4 years and that idiot didn’t still had the mental capacity of a toddler. “I am a proud student of this Academy-”

|-And she’s hanging out with a bunch of kids!| Tama cheerfully explained without a hint of spite.| A lot of the older guys _wish_ they could relive their youth like you’re doing! You must be sooo lucky!|

“....Yes, a _**proud**_ student of this academy. How did it feel stepping on me to get to the top, ‘Ru-ru?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Iona and find out?” Akira seethed. “Look, I’m not going to go down to your level. Unless you want to fight, and I do mean _for real-_ ” She rolled up her sleeve, letting Akira see a long healed scar that she may or may not have had a hand in creating, going up from the back of her hand to her elbow. And it also let her see the muscle. Good god the muscle. “-I suggest we pretend that we never saw each other and use our LRIGs to settle things between us. Deal?”

“D-deal.” Ruko Kaminoto then pulled her sleeve back down, smiled and went on her way.

“Oh and your room number is 6A!”

“Y-yeah.” She stood out there for a full minute, still processing the threat. And then she began to move, muttering to herself as she held out her PET to the door, causing it to open. She didn’t take note of the fresh laundry smell, the nice computer, flat screen TV built into the wall, or the bed that didn’t have the metal springs stabbing her ass and making it a bitch to sleep on. She just closed the door, gently locked it, threw her PET onto the bed before getting on it herself, put the pillow over her face, and screamed. _‘GODDAMNSTUPIDGOODYTWOSHOESBITCH!’_ Why?! WHY?! Why her?! WHY IS IT ALWAYS FUCKING HER?! She screamed into her pillow, again and again, thrashing violently and throwing her blanket and sheet off the bed. _‘Oh please just let this day end, things can’t get any worse!_

“Miss Mayro, I’m here to get help with my homework!” DAMN IT!  


* * *

_**ACDC Town, 16:22  
Sakurai Residence**_

_**To: LantarLord@HikariACDC1.  
From: PianoQueen@SakuraiACDC1  
Sent: Monday, 13:12  
Subject: WIXOSS**_

_I’m guessing MegaMan told you everything by now huh?  
I don’t know if I’m able to tell you myself what’s going on, just that if I had the power to help against the LifeVirus and Gospel, I would have done so in a heartbeat.  
This thing, this game, I’m barely a part of it, and yet I’m still in it. I’m_  
 **(This message has been saved as a Draft. Time: 13:20)**

_**To: LantarLord@HikariACDC1.  
From: PianoQueen@SakuraiACDC1  
Sent: Monday, 14:45  
Subject: WIXOSS**_

_Did you send Chaud over? Why?! He was talking about something called a ‘Code 3!’ What the heck’s a Code 3?! Is that why an entire section of the Net went offline?!  
Lan, you’re not on the rankings, and you’re not listed as a Selector, there’s still time! Get out of this game!_  
 **(This message has been saved as a Draft. Time: 13:20)**

Roll wiped the sweat from her brow as she finished looking over the mails. The PET was still recharging, currently at 88%, while Mayl was staring listlessly at the windows, having seen the school bus drive down the street a few hours earlier, and the school bell a half an hour back. |These two-| out of forty and over 33,000 words. It sucked being an LRIG sometimes. |-Are the only safe ones I _think_ won’t trigger the Kill Flag.|

But then again, the thing doesn’t always kill you in the same way. It never did. “They’re gonna be coming soon.”

|And we’ll be ready Mayl, trust me. Now go on and get dressed. Lan’s mom sent you a dinner invite while I was in sleep mode, so it’d be a good way to air everything out. To the best of our abilities of course|

Mayl nodded and soon she was fully dressed and out the door with Roll in her pocket. The second she finished locking the front gate and activated the security system was when Mr.Hikari’s car just came _rushing_ into the driveway. Curious, she came closer, standing near the side of the house doghouse as Mr.Hikari and some older girl came out-

“But that’s all I can tell you since we’re in public and being in public means that-” -Who was talking almost a mile a minute. “So that’s all you need to know about Selectors!” Before Mayl could proclaim her shock to herself, the older girl turned to her and pointed her finger straight at her. “Like her! She’s one!”

Mayl just blinked. ‘H-hi Mr.Hikari?” That girl was wearing a SciLab employee uniform, how could she be that stupid?! Scratch that, how was she _alive?!_ “Fancy meeting you here!” Any words that would have escaped her lips died out by the blank stare the doctor was giving her. He pointed to his house and she quickly went inside, sitting down at the Hikari family table and not uttering a peep as the chatterbox made herself comfortable next to her.

Yuichiro sat down at the opposite end of the table, fiddling with his PET until a loud beep could be heard throughout the house. “My wife’s out shopping and my son should be home soon. Neither of you are leaving until all of us talk this out.”

“Understood Mr.Hikari…”

“Right!” The chatterbox said with a tone of one that didn’t understand the situation she was in. “I’m just sooooo glad I can talk Selector junk with other people without that whole choking on your own blood thing!” She missed the wince the redhead made or the quick look of anger Mr.Hikari was giving her. “So Mr.Hikari, how did you...learn...about...WIX..OSS…” Her brain decided _now_ it was time to turn on. “Oh yeah; I’m in trouble aren’t I?”

“You’re not the only one.” Yuichiro said, he and Mayl glaring at Chiyori who was sighing in relief. “Earlier today I received a strange Email from my son about something called ‘WIXOSS.’ Chiyori talked about WIXOSS, and going by her Navi’s anger, it’s a very big secret. And now my future daughter in law is involved in this.” Both girls looked away, the elder Hikari able to almost smell the fear and panic radiating off of them. Their bodies were shaking slightly, Mayl looking very ashamed, and the older Chiyori looking as though she was about to bawl her eyes out, her eyes begging him not to make her tell anymore. “As I said I won’t do anything until Lan gets here. We’re going to have a very long talk about this. Now if you’ll excuse me..” He got up and headed to the stairs. “I’m going to get some papers so we can be all on the same page.”

Once Mr. Hikari left, Roll decided to speak. |WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR SELECTOR?!|

|HELL IF I KNOW, CHIDORI CAN’T KEEP HER DAMN MOUTH SHUT!|

“I said I was sorry…” The brunette mumbled, clutching her heart as if it could save her. “I really messed up this time, didn’t I?”

Eldora reigned in her anger. |...I wanna say _no_ since you’re actually learning, but yeah, you F’d up royally. I’m just wondering why the three of you aren’t dying.|

|It’s weird.| Roll muttered. |The heart crushing isn’t the only method of death for breaking the rules.| She used her PET’s infrared to initiate a short range communication with her fellow LRIG’s device, opening up a small chat window. |Are you sure that nothing tried to kill you and Mr.Hikari on the way here?|

Eldora shook her head, taking stock of her fellow LRIG’s Level 0 form. _‘Simple, lean, not bad, not bad!’_ “Nope. the guy was pretty pissed though.|

|Alright.| Roll turned to Mayl. |That beep was probably the security system by the way.| Mayl nodded in agreement. |But we’ve been involved in dangerous stuff all the time, why do this _now?_ |

|...Probably because someone let slip that we’re in a situation where we can be killed in a way that doesn’t involve-| Hearing Chiyori’s whimper caused Eldora to calm herself down. |I’m sorry. Let’s just wait for this Lan guy, ok Chiyori?|

“Ok…”

|And as for you guys!| Eldora smiled, causing Mayl and Roll to become defensive. |Why don’t we have a little fight? Not between Selector, but between NetOps? A good NetBattle will be a good way to pass the time, dontcha’ think?|

Mayl looked to Roll and nodded. “Let’s do it.” It’d be a good way to psyche herself up for when Lan got home. She just hoped the curse would let her talk to him about this.

* * *

  
This wasn’t too bad, Akira thought. The only real annoying bit was hooking the kid’s PET up to her room’s computer and having Piruluk crack whatever coked up password the brat’s parents had on the thing, but otherwise, she didn’t have any problems with this. She didn’t like it, didn’t hate it, it was just a thing that was happening.

“So if you just download this Addon from the SciLab App store, you can reactivate that function without risking your Navi freezing. Piruluk?”

|Understood. _CTRL F_ | She then spoke the line of code she was looking for, which then immediately appeared on the young girl’s PET screen, and on Akira’s computer. |There was your problem. The integer you used caused your Dummy Navi to malfunction. This code pertains to it’s walking animation synching up with its body, and you didn’t type it out properly.|

Akira pointed to the fifth line of code on the screen. “That one right there. Code that syncs a Navi’s animations to their Models don’t use punctuation marks. That’s why your Navi frame skips when it walks. You should’ve gotten an error message when the runtime program for the animation cycle started up though.”

“Woooow…” Akira resisted the urge to smile at the wide-eyed look the kid was giving her. “I didn’t even think of that; thanks!”

“Yeah, ok.” Akira scrolled down the list of coding. “Problem 2 right there. That integer’s completely wrong. ”

“Really?” The girl looked confused. “But I did it like the instructions said!”

“Sure you did. Piruluk?”

|Understood.| Piruluk accessed the other PET once again. It was disgusting how in sync she and Akira were at times. |Just like you assumed.| The troublesome data appeared on the computer screen. |Line 44. You entered the commands as instructed, but there are a total of twelve spaces between the text. It’s what’s preventing the BattleChip render from loading properly, and subsequently with your Navi’s improperly inputted animation sequence, prevents your Navi from working properly.|

“You just put it in wrong.” In reality, the kid didn’t probably didn’t pay attentionThis type of shit was common back in elementary school, the homework itself more finding what was wrong with the instructions rather than getting the Dummy Navi to actually work. “Piruluk,fix the code and do a test run.” The computer screen showed a status bar that quickly filled up, followed by a 352X240 screen with a bipedal Navi in the center. It’s only discernible features being the crash test dummy texturing over its body. “See? Works fine.”

“Oh thank you miss!”The girl hugged Akira’s arm, quickly disconnected her PET from the computer, and then pocketed it. “I’m gonna show up Yai for sure with this!”

“Ok, sure. Now get out of here, it’s almost freaking nighttime!”

The girl froze. “OH SHOOT!” And a second later she was gone.

“ _Finally._ ”Akira locked her door before going back to her computer where, to Piruluk’s confusion, she turned off it’s internet access. “Now that the brat’s gone, I can finally get down to business.” She held her PET straight to her face, so Piruluk would have no choice but to look into her eyes and the beast like snarl on her face.“Like what the fuck were you thin _KING WITH THAT STUNT O **N THE BUS?!** ”_

|....|Oh. She completely forgot about that.

“Why don’t you be a pal and remind me: How much did that cloak cost me?”

|...|

“Oh, I can look it up no problem, I just want _you_ to tell me how much that super special cloak you begged me to buy cost me!”

|You know the answer.|

“And you’re going to have a meeting with Mr. Fridge Magnet if you don’t answer the goddamn question!” Akira slammed her fist into the desk, her teeth bare. “And what’s worse was that you used WIXOSS cards in public!”

|That area’s IP Recognition Software was outdated and-|

“I.don’t.care! If that kid’s Navi didn’t force you offline, your Battle Data would have been recorded and we would’ve been SOL’d!” A light chuckle, filled with nothing but pure anger, came from her lips. “If I go down, I’m taking your ass with me. Remember when I told you that?”

|Yes..| This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all. Wily must know about her stunt by now. |And I agreed wholeheartedly.|

“Really? You didn’t forget?”

|No.|

“Oh, uh-huh, so you’re saying that-”

_***KNOCK KNOCK***_ “Akira?”

“OH GOODIE!” Another person she wanted to stab right now! “What do you want Ru-Ru?! I’m busy!”

“Yeah, and that’s the problem! You’re lucky my roommate’s got garbage duty right now, otherwise you would’ve been-” She made a slicing sound. “I’m coming in.” Akira didn’t ask how Ruko got into her room. Her and Piruluk were too busy contemplating the fact that they could’ve _died_ at any point in the conversation. Ruko closed the door behind her and sat down on Akira’s bed, crossing her legs. “So what was that all about, because it sounds like you had Piruluk use an NAT cloak to do something that caused an area wide logoff, like what happened today.” Ruko’s eyes tracked Akira’s noting the girl was looking at the sharp pencil on the side of her desk. “Really? You’re gonna try that with me?”

|Stupid Stupid!| Tama yelled. Or cheered. No one could really tell with her.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m gonna stab myself, you didn’t fucking think of that?!” Oh god that stupid swear jar, she forgot all about it! “Fine, I won’t try anything. What do you want?” And that’s when things got worse for the duo.

Ruko held out her PET, the screen showing something very familiar. “You’re going to help me with something tonight, and I won’t tell anyone about what you did on the way to SciLab.”

“O-oh…” Ru-Ru was a Netsaver, just like that kid with the bootleg LRIG… “So that’s the real reason why we haven’t been arrested.”

Ruko nodded. “We’re going to work together tonight. I have intel that someone’s going to break into the school to steal something very important, and you’re going to help me stop them.”

|We can go aaaaaaaaaallll out!| Tama’s voice shouted from the PET. |We can use our LRIG form to kick the bad guy’s butt!|

|I see.| Akira could swear she heard Piruluk’s voice waver for a second. |So this thief is a Selector, I take it?| How? How could the plan have been leaked?!

“Right.” Ruko clarified, and Piruluk realized the girl was still a terrible liar after all these years. “I won’t tell you everything, but when Tama was looking for people to fight, she came across a bunch of weirdos called the Bubble Brigade.” Oh. BubbleMan _. Of course._ “Tama asked for directions to some ice cream shop she wanted me to take her to-”

|They had a cool Ice cream flavor, mint chocolate!|

“-And for some reason they thought she was threatening them. The next thing I knew, I woke up at 4 in the morning to find Tama with three HeelNavis on my computer talking about a Tet-” Ruko’s eyes darted to the right. “-So long story short, what’s in here requires the power of a Selector to take.”

|I see.| Piruluk said, clenching her fist angrily. |And did they provide any other details?|

“Only that the LRIG’s level 0 form was an ice themed Aqua Type Navi, a real washboard in the chest, and ‘looked like the biggest loser you’ll ever see’, in their own words of course.”

|She must be a real androdyna!|

|You mean androdgynous, Tama.| Piruluk corrected. _‘That fish lipped IDIOT!’_

|Thank you!|

“So you want us to team up right?” Akira chimed in. Ruko nodded. “And I won’t get arrested right?” Ruko nodded. “Sure, I’m game.”

|I am too.|

Ruko sighed in relief as Tama cheered. “That’s good. I thought I was going to have to threaten you or something, maybe a bit of blackmail, but that was easier than I thought.!” If Akira wasn’t being Akira, and actually kept her mouth shut, then tonight would’ve been a lot harder!

“Yeah, I’m shocked too!” Akira shouted, moreso over the fact that freakin’ _Ru-Ru_ just said all that with a straight face! “So what time?”

“22:55 is when the thief will make their move.” Ruko continued. “At 20:44, I’ll call you down to the administrative building in the west wing of the school, and we’ll send our Navis into the network to guard it. All additional plans will be downloaded to your PET and told to you when ready.”

_‘Which means FlashMan will summon me and the others around 19:00 or so to adjust our plans.’_ Piruluk thought.

“If everything goes as planned, You’ll be excused from participating in class for a month, and you’ll be given a wireless version of the current PET model, with Undernet Cloaking technology built into it.”

Akira’s eyes lit up. “You have a dea,l Ru-Ru!”

Five minutes later Ruko left Akira’s room, leaving the two alone. “Well this day’s just gotten a whole lot better! I’m gonna get me a new PET and possibly participate in legally allowed violence!”

|Are you sure about this? This could be a trap.|

Akira just stared at Piruluk. “Really? Her and Short Bus?”

|..Fair point.| Akira was acting logical, had a tangible goal, and had the chance to severely hurt someone legally and get away with it. Getting her to back down from this was going to be impossible. _‘Wait, she couldn’t back out even if she wanted to.’_ Damn it! _‘How am I going to alert him in time for him to alter the plan?!’_

“Now if only I can find some loser Selector to beat up…” Akira said with a happy sigh. “Then this day’ll be perfect!” Piruluk’s eyes widened; that was it!

* * *

  
Ruko looked out her window, her PET on it’s charger built into her desk. |Ruko, the soundproofing is active.| Tama alerted as she closed the room’s environmental control systems. Being a NetSaver had a lot of perks. |Are you ok?|

“No…” Was the reply, not even looking back at the LRIG. “Nothing about that meeting was right.”

|Huh?| Tama tilted her head. |You said everyone matured from back then, so why not Akira?|

Ruko sighed in annoyance. “I said everyone _but_ Akira. I’m just shocked that she’s so calm after the stuff I’ve heard she’d been up to! Now all of a sudden she’s in school again, trying to be on her best behavior for the most part, and agreeing with whatever I’m saying? The last time we met, she kidnapped Hitoe and stabbed me!”

|Hmmm…..| Tama put a hand to her chin. |Maybe someone’s bribing her, like when you want me to be quiet on those boring NetSaver meetings?|

Ruko shook her head. “Can’t be; I’ve seen Akira’s home life, I’ve seen her blog posts when that crazy stalker broke into her house and leaked them on the net. She can’t be satisfied with just this. There has to be something else at play,but what?”

Tama pondered those words. |Maybe you can get Iona to make her records public again?|

Ruko shook her head. “I barely got her to agree to it in the first place.” Not to mention there was an obvious ulterior motive to it all, Iona coming to her to protect Akira out of ‘the kindness of her heart’ using her NetSaver authority. A video showing Akira’s home and family life later, and she agreed to Iona’s terms. “I just don’t know what to do. And then there’s Piruluk…”

|She was really angry!|

“I know.” She could sense it pretty well. The Navi that she attacked must have angered her if she went against Akira’s orders like that. “Well we’ll find out tonight, and then Akira won’t be able to shut-”

*BEEP *BEEP!* |You got a challenge Ruko!| The room lit up with a dim white glow, coating everything inside it’s glow as though through a filter. |It’s Akira! She’s challenging you to a fight!|

“....”And just like that, all of Ruko’s worries went away. “Let’s go.”

|YAAAY!| Tama was so glad to see that smile on Ruko’s face. They hadn’t had a fight in a long time! Granted, even _she_ could see that this sort of behavior was what prevented Ruko from being promoted so she could do these cool missions legally, but who cares?! BATTLE!

* * *

_**ACDC Town, 17:00  
Hikari Residence **_

“Man I’m beat..” Lan grumbled finally reached his house as the street lights turned on. Dad’s car was in the driveway, so if he was in a good mood -AKA his bosses didn’t make him hit the sauce and, as he and his friends heard the neighbors put it, remind mom on why he was the best husband ever- He could fix MegaMan up nice and good!

|The alarm’s on.| MegaMan warned as Lan put his hand on the doorknob. |There are three people inside right now, PET ID’s register as dad, Mayl’s, and an unknown SciLab employee.| With a beep from the SubPET, the house’s security was disabled. |Ok, you can go in.|

“Thanks.” Lan mumbled as he closed the door behind him, a taxi cab passing by. “I’m home!” He said tiredly as he closed the door. He put his shoes away and entered the living room where Mayl and some other girl were too busy with their PETs to notice him. _‘Finally!’_ Now to get some answers! “Hey, Mayl!”

* * *

  
_‘You’re lucky, Lan Hikari.’_ Saiko thought as he bought out his PET, his cab bringing him ever closer to his residence for the night. _‘You’re not my target today.’_ He began typing. |FlashMan, is DesertMan ready on his end?|

|Yes. His Sand Eyes have sent the data to the main server and verified Lord Wily’s data. The TetraCode is in the exact same place as he said it would be.|

|Good. And Piruluk?|

|She is offline at the moment, but her connection to the WIXOSS Network remains stable. The meeting begins in two hours in ACDC Area 2.|

|Understood.|

|In the meantime, We should work on DrillMan’s Status Immunity. The Elemental Conversion BIOS and COM files have finished booting up, so I’m ready to begin when you are.|

|Understood.| Saiko grinned as he looked to the night sky. With the success of this operation, WWW would have two of the mighty TetraCodes in their possession. Cybergeddon was on its way to completion, one step at a time. |Start the countdown.

**5 HOURS REMAINING  
55 MINUTES REMAINING.**


	9. Prelude to a Flashy Night Part 1(Lan&MegaMan)

_**ACDC Town, 16:22  
Main Street.**_

|I’m feeling kinda sleepy Lan…| MegaMan warned with a yawn as Lan crossed the street. The night air was a bit chilly, and thankfully traffic was nonexistent right about now. |It’s taking me everything I can to keep these security protocols active.| Not to mention converting them so they’d work using the SubPET’s emulators. |If I go out right now, anyone can sneak up on you.|

“I know I know!” He also knew that MegaMan only reminded him of stuff like that if he got a bad feeling, the ‘Someone’s after us’ type of feeling. “There’s a cellphone hotspot up ahead, I’ll empty the cache there and you can move around for a bit.”

|That’d be...be…| The blue Navi let out a loud, long yawn. |What was I talking about?|

Lan activated the skates in his shoes. “Yeah I’d better hurry.”

* * *

Cell Phone hotspots were made for those who couldn’t afford a decent cell phone plan for your PET. You could recognize them by the half-domed structure that housed numerous ports for Jacking In, a well as the silver-colored benches with the Ayanokoji logo engraved into them. And at this time of night, the area was lit up nice and brightly. The security protocols MegaMan was struggling to keep active were in place at the hotspots 24/7, meaning that getting away with stealing or worse would be impossible, not that it’d happen in a city this peaceful. Lan’s plan was simple: Jack MegaMan in and use the extra processing power from the computer to empty out the SubPET’s cache, and then go home. One problem however….

“This stupid thing doesn’t fit!” With gritted teeth, Lan held up the two-pronged Jack-In cable for the SubPET and then looked at the USB port for the hotspot. “AARGGH, stupid clunker!” MegaMan let out another yawn, one that came out choppy through the speakers. _‘Come on come on!’_ There had to be some device around here with an old Jack-In port! He quickly looked around the hotspot, and his eyes soon found themselves staring at the vending machine. _‘I wonder…’_ He quickly walked to it and knelt down, inspecting the rusty backside -a good sign- until he found what he was looking for. “Yes!” A pre Model1 PET Jack-In port! “Hold on MegaMan, help’s on the way”! He held the cable up high and jammed it in.

“JACK-IN, MEGAMAN.EXE! EXECUTE!”

…And suddenly he remembered his time back in the states, and _boy_ was he glad he wasn’t in the New York back streets! People with guns really didn’t appreciate a kid shouting that late at night.

* * *

  
_**ACDC worker’s network, 16:26  
VendorComp1**_

“Oh yes!” MegaMan yelled with renewed vigor as he jumped off of the Warp Gate and into ACDC’s vending machine network. Due to its age, there wasn’t much, if any, in the way of architecture, just a scrolling wallpaper of different juice brands.“Finally I can move!” He began stretching, savoring the cracking of his stiff joints. “So how much time have we got?”

|33 minutes.| Lan answered as a folder appeared in front of MegaMan. |Let’s boot this up before we get home.| Of all the things for dad to forget, it was giving MegaMan the same NaviID between models! He wouldn’t have been able to even Jack In even if he had the regular PET! |Good thing these vending machines are so old, huh?|

“Yep!” MegaMan touched the icon.

**LOADING WIXOSS TRAINING PROGRAM PT2**

* * *

  
A Chibi version of Urith appeared on the screen. |Hiya everybody!| She said cheerfully. |This is part 2 of the WIXOSS tutorial!| She pulled on the right of the screen’s borders, causing a new window to slide into frame. |I told you last time that I’d get into Levels, so now let’s do it!| Another card appeared on screen.

**ANN-MIRA, PHANTOM DRAGON  
CARD TYPE: SIGNI  
COLOR: BLACK  
LRIG LEVEL: 4  
LRIG RESTRICTION: URITH ONLY  
CARD ABILITIES: AUTO/2TURN  
ON-PLAY  
LIFE BURST**

“Woooooow!” That...that outfit! He quickly covered up the PET screen and looked around like frightened prey. _‘Please don’t let anybody see what I'm doing!’_

|Levels and the Custom Gauge go hand in hand!| Urith explained. |When an LRIG’s Custom Gauge fills up, that means that they can Grow to another Level.| An arrow appeared over the Chibi GIF file. |What you see now is my Level 0 form, the basic form of all LRIGs. We can’t use SIGNI, ARTS, or any WIXOSS cards, and we can only use Level 1 SIGNI. Our HP is kept restricted to a max of 2000. When we grow, we can go to our base LRIG forms, and start to use Level 1 SIGNI.| The arrow appeared next to the level of the card. |A card’s LRIG level corresponds to your growth level. An LRIG can’t use a card that doesn’t match their level, IE, I can’t use a Level 4 card like this at all.|

 _‘Why the heck is she lying?’_ And why did she program her chuckling evilly into the GIF?

|Now for Card Abilities!| The arrow hovered over to it. |These are additional effects that determine what kind of crazy stuff will happen when the card is played or if your opponent is hit by it!| The arrow hovered next to ‘Auto’ and ‘2turn.’ |Auto abilities are triggered the second a prerequisite is fulfilled. For this SIGNI, it’s when I discard 1 card to block an attack. Once that’s done, I can select an opponent’s active SIGNI and take 6000 attack from it until their Custom Gauge refills.|’2turn’ was highlighted. |If this is next to an ability, that means that the SIGNI can only use that ability for the number of turns before it’s disabled.|

‘On-Play’ was where the arrow pointed next. |This means that the ability will activate the second the weapon is loaded into the LRIG. in this case, when Iona loads it into me, I can select 1 specific card type and discard it, then I get another card of that type from the Trash, Level 3 or lower, and I get to load it up automatically! Of course it’s a one and done thing.|

‘Life Burst’ was next. |Now this one is special! Life Burst abilities only trigger when a card is used as a Life Cloth. They can be used regardless of the card’s limits on who’s allowed to activate them, and when they’re done, they’re sent to the Ener Zone! When making your Deck, you must have 20 Life Burst cards, no more no less, and activating the Life Burst abilities is completely optional. For this SIGNI, I can have it so that any of my opponent’s weapons lose 12,000 attack until the end of my turn!| The GIF changed into a cheerleading outfit, still monochrome, as fanfare began to play, and then turned back to normal. |Pretty cool huh? Now then, I will-will-will-will-will-will-wi-| **MEMORY LIMIT EXCEEDED!**

“SHOOT!” Lan took MegaMan out. “Stupid old piece of junk!” And looking at his SubPET’s screen, he saw that MegaMan was dead tired. “Dang it!” He was gonna have to clean this thing’s cache when he got home! This was not his day!

* * *

_**ACDC Town, 16:59  
Hikari Residence, Hikari Local Battle Arena**_

The arena was large, 22 feet long and 33 feet wide. The floor was metallic, made of red and blue squares, without any other features, just a platform hovering in the sky. At the opposite ends of the platform were two Warp Gates, where the combatants entered, Roll on the left, Eldora on the right.

“Dang, this is pretty impressive!” Eldora said as she stepped off of the Warp Gate. “Is this procedurally generated?”

Roll nodded. “Mr.Hikari had it set up like that in case me or anyone else came over.” She kept her eyes trained on her opponent as the two of them walked into the center of the arena. “That’s an interesting Level 0 Form.”

“That’s what everyone else says.” She held out her hand. “Name’s Eldora. What’s yours?”

“Roll.” Eldora stared at her for a second before taking her hand. “Do you know who I am?“

“No, why would I?”

Roll took pause. “No reason. So, how do you want to do this? I don’t do much fighting outside my LRIG form.”

“NetBattling doesn’t excite you anymore huh? Got it.” Eldora bought up a holo-screen. “Beginner rules.”

“Alright.” 20 Chips 100 HP, and a 5 minute time limit. “What’s the power level on your Buster?”

“20 Attack, and everything else at level 1.”

Roll pointed to her antenna “10 Attack, and I have these as my Charge Shot. they’re close range only.

Eldora nodded as she read the information being sent to her. “Chiyori set up her Folder.”

“Mayl already did it a few seconds after I logged in.”

...Mayl? “Oh, Preset Folders huh? Your girl’s prepared!” That name sounded familiar… “Alright then, since this is your territory, you can set the distance.”

Roll looked past Eldora. “Hmm….20 feet from this spot sounds good.”  
“Ok.” And so the two began to walk, that name sending up alarm bells in Eldora’s head as she went to the exact spot, helped along by a waypoint marker. _‘Mayl, Mayl…Who is that?’_ When she got to the spot she turned, turning her left hand into a Buster. “You ready?”

“Yep! Battle Routine Set?”

“Execute!”

* * *

_‘I imprisoned two underage girls in my house.’_ Was the thought that continuously played in Yuichiro’s head. Where was that ‘the World’s In Danger’ Genshu NA05 when he needed it?!

With the surveillance of the bottom floor and the house’s Cyberworld open in two tabs to the right and his admin console open in the other, the largest tab that took up most of the screen, Yuichiro scoured his dad’s files, having already read through 66,000 words in the time it took for the program to open. There was a time he didn’t have to do this, go through all this trouble just to look up a simple term or word. But after multiple attacks on his family by two terrorist organizations, both funded by the man that was his unofficial uncle and who knew his dad better than anyone, he wasn’t taking any chances. For all he knew, his old dow Gow could hold a secret to unlocking some doomsday weapon or something!

The trick to this was simple, but required an extraordinary amount of time to pull off. He sped through a few novels in under an hour, just some short 500,000 word ones -child’s play when it came to the text reading speed required for government level Navi development- plagiarized and paraphrased some things here and there, and mixed it up with some stuff from his personal life, and then made a whole mess of in such a way that not only would it be impossible for anyone to gleam anything about his family’s life from it, he had written it in such a way that it looked as though it was something his son made back when he and Dex were in that strange shipping war thing with those Inazuma Eleven boys, before the gender reveal that should’ve been dropped far before this started.

“Fifty words, seventeen words, nine words…” The key wasn’t anything at all; no word association,keyword finding, or anything that could be used to make even the slightest connection. “And 99 words in total.” He inputted the proper Shift Commands into his keyboard and finally got in. “There we go.” The only ‘connection’ there was were just some random words from the text that were just the codewords. And with the computer being pre PET era, there was no way for a Navi to get in.

 **WELCOME HOME YUICHIRO  
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO TODAY?  
[F1]SHUT D OWN  
[F2] OLD MEMORIES  
[F3] O LD MEM ORIES II  
[F4] OLD MEMORIES III**

Another good thing about this computer being analog? Everyone today forgot about the importance of typing in exact filenames or strings. Modern convenience was this machine’s most powerful defense. He pressed F4, followed by a few 300 character commands. The screen then changed to something resembling an early internet age website, the really old ones, back when making a GIF would take up 88% of a computer’s memory.

The images on the fake webpage were of terrible quality, heavy JPEG artifacting mixed with poorly cut out images with obvious outlines and white space surrounding them. His old dog, his old toys and some other things his friends back then really liked all constituted the images/links on this old page, his first ever web based project. He held the right button on the mouse before quickly left clicking Gow, his first ever Transformer toy, and the Tamagotchi final he got as a gag gift, all in under 2 seconds.

 **ACKNOWLEDGED**

This had the effect of turning the screen entirely black, save for the surveillance footage. “Oh, that’s a good use of AirShot.” Such a useful Chip despite it’s low power. The black went away, revealing dozens and dozens of DOS era windows, minimized and neatly arranged in four rows. He hovered the mouse between one of the rows and moved it in a cross position between teh windows, opening up his real prize.

 **[F5+||=SS----DDFFSSFCCCCVV]OLD DAD GAMES**

There was a lot of sentimental value in this folder, and as he learned during the development of the PET, dad+sentimental value= something dangerous, and once again he was forced to plunder this folder’s secrets. With a five key command he activated the microphone in the monitor and uttered one word: “WIXOSS”

 **33 RESULTS FOUND**

And the first result was just what he was looking for.

* * *

Back on the battlefield, things had settled into a stalemate.

 **Roll. EXE: 100HP  
Eldora.EXE: 100HP**

A stalemate in every sense of the term. Slash marks and bullet holes littered the field, parts of the arena cut out and deleted from the attacks. The two combatants were none the worse for wear, only winded from the constant running.

“Of freaking course she’s a floater…” Eldora muttered as she stared at Roll’s feet, 3 inches off the ground. She wasn’t meant for shooting things, and with blondie hovering above the only thing she could hit, nearly all her attack options were gone, and her Buster was too slow in every category to hit her without transforming!

Roll, meanwhile, couldn’t hit Eldora for two reasons. One, while Eldora’s Buster was slow, she was lightning quick, which meant charging her antenna and warping in front of her was out of the question. The other reason was even if Mayl had the best Folder out there, or if Yai gave her one of the Folders reserved for Lan’s NetSaver dealings, there was one unalienable fact that would leave her unsuited for NetBattle in her Level 0 form:

|LONGSWORD!| She couldn’t use over 88% of the BattleChip Library. With a sigh, Roll summoned the third Rock Cube.

|RECOVER 49!| Thankfully her opponent just flat out sucked, a deepening spiral of paradoxical intelligence that made one wonder if the game or her own skills were what got her to where she was today. Eldora sighed as the words ‘CHIP ERROR!’ appeared over her head, blinking an obnoxious pink. “Uhmm, she does know that’s not a real Chip right?”

Eldora scoffed. “Nope.”

|Hey!|

 _‘At least your mess ups can be avoided.’_ Roll thought, hiding her displeasure with a mirthful chuckle at Chiyori’s ignorance. She was the Girl Who Escaped, and yet there was a very good reason other LRIGs weren’t flocking to her to find out her secret. When it came to the tumultuous world of LRIGs, it was better to suffer and live then be freed and crippled like she was.

Eldora shrugged. “My girl’s good with computers and writing, unless we’re fighting against another Selector, she’s pretty much hopeless.”

Roll groaned. “Well, this lifted my mood, just not in the way I think any of us intended.”

“Yep.” She noticed Roll looking above her head. “It takes a while to go away.”

|I paid a lot of money for this stupid Chip, why isn’t it working?!|

“And dum-dum’s the reason why.”

|HEY!|

* * *

Mayl smiled nervously at the older girl. Usually when she was the mature one in a room of older people, it involved a lot more cursing and racism. Sometimes the real world was more out there than the Undernet. “So uhh, you wanna call this a draw?” Thank goodness Lan lent her Chips whenever they went Undernet diving. Now if only he wasn’t so stingy… “We can talk about other things if you want.”

“But I’m a sexy older woman and you’re a kid!” Chiyori countered in shock. “What do we have to talk about?!”

Mayl ignored that first part. “Hobbies, likes, interests… let’s start with you; what do you like?”

Chiyori looked to her PET nervously. “Weeeellllll, I like Navi making.”

“You can make Navis?!” Mayl exclaimed, with far too much surprise.

“Yep!” Chiyori said, pride welling as she misinterpreted the redhead’s look for awe. “It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it!” Eldora let out a soft sigh as she sent the relevant data to Roll, just so the younger duo could keep up. “You see, it-”

And as she began to blather, the mood above began to darken and dim. Yuichiro had gone silent, unable to believe what he was seeing. “How..how is this possible?”

* * *

  
_**ACDC Town, 17:00  
Hikari Residence **_

“Man I’m beat..” Lan grumbled finally reached his house as the street lights turned on. Dad’s car was in the driveway, so if he was in a good mood -AKA his bosses didn’t make him hit the sauce and, as he and his friends heard the neighbors put it, remind mom on why he was the best husband ever- He could fix MegaMan up nice and good!

|The alarm’s on.| MegaMan warned tiredly as Lan put his hand on the doorknob. |There are three people inside right now, PET ID’s register as dad, Mayl’s, and an unknown SciLab employee.| With a beep from the SubPET, the house’s security was disabled. |Ok, you can go in. I’m just...gonna...| **MEGAMAN.EXE SHUTTING DOWN**

“Thanks.” Lan mumbled as he closed the door behind him, a taxi cab passing by. “I’m home!” He said tiredly as he closed the door. He put his shoes away and entered the living room where Mayl and some other girl were too busy with their PETs to notice him. _‘Finally!’_ Now to get some answers!

“And so I had the biggest sandwich ever that day! Western food goes through me like you _wouldn’t_ believe!”

...Oooh boy. _‘I’d better save her.’_ “Hey, Mayl!”

The redhead jumped. “Hi Lan…” Her voice was a mixture of fear and relief, the latter because she was very glad she didn’t have to listen to this anymore! And the other was the fear, because he was looking straight at her without a hint of emotion. “Nice day huh?”

“Yeah, real nice day.” Lan muttered, taking a breath to prepare himself. He turned to the other person in the room. “Are you one of my dad’s assistants?”

Chiyori scoffed. “I _wish._ ” She then glared at him. “And I was _talking,_ Mr. Rudepants! You don’t interrupt a girl like that you know!”

Lan narrowed his eyes as the girl kept ranting. _‘Let’s see if this works.’_ He steeled himself as he kept his facade up, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Do you know anything about WIXOSS?”

“And-” Chiyori stopped. “Oh..you know about that too huh?” She looked to the right, putting a hand over her eyes. “I see nothing, I hear nothing! Whatever you wanna talk about, go ahead!

“Thanks.” What a weird girl. He ignored the strange teenager and walked past Mayl, grabbing her by the hand and leading her into his room. Once he was sure they were alone he bought out his SubPET and began typing onto it.

“Why do you have a SubPET?” Mayl asked nervously.

“WIXOSS, that’s why.” Lan muttered as he cycled through the files. _‘Why was this thing in Battery Saver Mode?!’_ “Finally!” He didn’t know why the EMail function was buried so deep down here, but he found it! He clicked on the first mail on the list, and then showed the SubPET to Mayl.

 _ **To: LantarLord@HikariACDC1.  
From: PurityAngel@UrazoeKyushu4  
Sent: Monday, 14:33  
Subject: WIXOSS Tutorial Part 2: Dangers and Mysteries.**_

“I got it on the way back to my class on the field trip. It took me 20 minutes to read through it all-” Because MegaMan kept freezing half the time “-But I think I get the gist of it.” He leaned against the door and narrowed his eyes, crossing his arm for effect. “Show me your LRIG.”

Mayl wanted to tell him that it looked like he had a stroke in his right arm after swallowing the sourest lemon possible, but she thought better of it. “I can’t…” She pointed to the door.” “You dragged me in here before I could grab Roll.”

“...Oh.”

 _1 minute later._

The door opened again, Lan handing Roll to Mayl and resuming his awesome pose while holding out the SubPET for her to see. “Alright. Show me.” Mayl’s eyes darted to the left. “I just talked about it, and none of us are dead. We’re not going to die.”

“....” Mayl backed away, holding her PET to her chest. “I can’t…” Thoughts of that icy grip around her height filled her mind. “I-I can’t!” Lan was staring at her, just staring, the same way Chaud did when he wanted something! “I-I’m sorry!” She quickly turned, foot kicking off the ground as she made a break to his porch door.

|We’re in a card game-| And fell flat on her face as Roll began to explain. |- I don’t know when it was established and when the game was implemented, but it’s been in operation for at least 20 years, I think.| Lan walked to Mayl and helped her up, lifting up Roll in the other hand as the redhead rubbed her head. |There’s a lot of rules-HEY!|

Mayl grabbed the PET from Lan’s hand and held it to her chest. “I’m sorry! I don’t know how you know about WIx- this, but the fact you do doesn’t mean I’m immediately exempt from the rules myself!”

“....”Oh. He didn’t think of that.

“Roll isn’t like other LRIGs.” Mayl continued. “We..it’s not safe.”

|Mayl, I-|

“Please Roll!”

|...| Roll relented with closed eyes. |Fine. Lan, I’ll just say this: I’m glitched. There’s a reason me and Mayl suck at NetBattling and it involves the game. It’s because of this glitched state that Mayl is right; I don’t care how much you know, it’s not safe for either of us to say anything directly about our situation.|

“We could’ve saved everyone from ColorMan back during...du…” She backed away onto the bed, catching her breath as the sounds of crashing cars filled her mind. “T-t-t-thee...the..” So many people flung out the windows, clinging for their lives, and that stupid clown on the screen laughing at them all and giving them live footage of the carnage!

|The Auto Traffic Tragedy.| Roll finished before Mayl could sink lower. |The point is,you can explain, but we can’t talk. We _won’t_ talk. Got it?|

Lan stared at the two, Mayl recovering shockingly fast. “You’ve had these panic attacks before?”

“I’ve had a lot of panic attacks!” She wiped her tears and gave him a friendly smile, like she always did before they went to school. “Once you get past the twelfth traumatic incident, you learn to smile through it all!” She got up with a spring in her step and approached her shocked friend with ‘cheer’. “In just a few months, all of us involved learn to be pretty good actors!”

“I-I-I...uhhhh..” He couldn’t even find a way to respond to this! “Good...for...you?”

“Thanks!” Suddenly she pulled him a crushing hug, her voice then becoming softer. “Thanks though. I just can’t right now, ok?”

Lan took a while to reply. “Sure.” This was going to make talking to the others far, far more dangerous than he thought.

* * *

“Oh there you guys are!” Chiyori yelled to Mailu and Dr.Hikari’s kid as they sat down at the table. “Why are you holding his hand like that?”

“Comfort.” Mail replied, squeezing tightly when Lan tried to move. “We’re Selectors after all.”

“Aaahhhh..” Chiyori understood. “So you!” She pointed to Dr. Hikari’s Kid. “What’s your name?”

“Lan.” Jeez, since when was Mayl so strong?! “How do you know my dad?”

“I’m part of the SciLab Net Management Team!” Chiyori pridefully answered, holding her hands to her hips. “I’m basically part of the brain that keeps SciLab’s Cyberworld up and running!” The two kids stared at her, their faces telling her everything. “Fine! You don’t believe me?” She swiped her PET off the table and began typing on it. “HERE!”

Mayl’s PET began vibrating. She picked it up, her eyes widening as she showed Lan what was on there. “She’s not lying!”

“That’s the same rank my dad had when _he_ started working at SciLab!” He looked to Chiyori, then back to the screen. “I thought they were super strict about how you behaved there!”

|Oh they were.| Eldora said. |Then she made a near exact copy of a Dominerd2 in under 4 hours, same amount of time it takes for the really skeevy Virus makers!| You could hear pride drip from every word she said. |Being a Selector gives you a lot of benefits!|

“Yeah…” Mayl muttered. _‘It helps shut you up and just accept it.’_

“GRK!” His _haaaannnd!_ “O-ok, so you’re super smart!”

“And super cute!”

“So maybe you can help me!” He put the SubPET on the table. “See, I had a run-in with a Navi that I think was an LR-”

“I’m back!” Everyone’s attention was turned to the stairs as Yuichiro came down with a magazine’s worth of freshly printed papers. His gaze was turned to Lan and the SubPET on the table. _‘Oh boy.’_ He sat down at the table next to Chiyori, and placed the papers on top, separating them into piles of 4. “Do you know anything about WIXOSS Lan?” His son nodded. “And I presume that since you have my SubPET, that MegaMan was severely damaged by this WIXOSS?” Lan nodded again. _‘Of course.’_ “Well, that makes this easier.” He crumpled up the leftmost pile of papers. “Alright, tell me what you know.” He took out his own PET and handed it to Lan. “It’s a variant of the commercial model. Look to the right of the Chip slot.”

Lan did so, and soon pulled out a long, thin cord with two swirled prongs at the end. “Oh I see!” He connected the prongs to the auxiliary power port of the SubPET, giving the relic enough processing power to actually function somewhat like a modern device.

|Ooooohhh…| And enough memory for MegaMan to wake up. |What’d I miss?|

Yuichiro’s fists clenched at what he saw. _‘My poor boy…’_ “You’re back home MegaMan.” He took his PET, careful not to disconnect the two devices, and activated a special emitted from the ceiling. It was so his boys and his friends could NetBattle in HD, though given his son’s poor school ethics, it rarely got much use. “I connected you to my device so you could at least move around.”

|Oh.| Everything was so foggy. |I was just talking to Lan a couple minutes ago, and I went into Sleep Mode that fast?|

“I’m afraid so.” Yuichiro then connected to the SubPET, and accessed the files. “Now we don’t have much time before the girls have to go home, so let’s make this short.”

|Sure dad. You guys all know the rules to WIXOSS right?”

“Yes.” Yuichiro nodded. “Dad’s notes were very thorough.”

“I know them too.” Mayl answered.”

“And so do I!”

|Alright. I’ll start with my first experience with it. It was last night, when I felt the urge to go to Tapioca Mall.| The cameras didn’t miss the look the girls gave each other after hearing that, and neither did Yuichiro. |That’s when I saw Roll in her LRIG form, and was dragged into a fight with her and another LRIG called LuckyRucky.|

“Yes, I’ve heard of an incident at the mall.”Yuichiro said. “The cameras were too error-ridden to get a clear recording, but there was an account of an Aqua-Type Navi using a movie file of an ice attack.”

“Yeah.” Chiyori chimed in “I don’t know much about LuckyRucky, but she’s baaaaad news! She’s like, the only LRIG I know that can use status effects with their Charge Shots at any Level!”

|And her freezing attacks can actually affect electronics.| Eldora said, causing the Hikari boys to stiffen. |I’ve seen reports that she was in the Beach Area around 12:56 I think?| She gave MegaMan’s PET a Permission Request to access the emitter’s function, which the blue Navi granted. |Thanks.| The emitted displayed a low quality JPG the cloaked Navi in all her glory, staff and all. |It’s not much, but the fact any image of her has the same unique ID makes her pretty easy to track.|

“Until today that is.” Chiyori grumbled before turning her attention to the other girl. “You fought her right? What was she like?”

“Unprepared.” Mayl replied, unsure with nervous eyes. “I was unprepared, she was unprepared, and MegaMan was certainly unprepared. For some reason MegaMan was able to use BattleChips on her just fine.” A loud gasp threatened to escape Chiyori’s lips before Eldora shushed her. “He was able to enter our fight as well. Not only that, but the Elemental Affinities affected LuckyRucky too.”

|Da-I mean jeez!| Eldora caught herself, remembering whose house she was in. |What are you blue boy, glitched or something?|

|I think that’s the case.| MegaMan said. |Something in me-| And he had a pretty good hint as to what that something was. |-was able to let me hurt her, and let Roll use her SIGNI through me.|

Chiyori pondered on that. “You probably share the same data.” She rationalized. “Or at least some of it.” She grabbed the salt and pepper shakers. “I got a good explanation for it. Say this is Eldora.” She pointed to the salt shaker. “And this is MegaMan.” And then to the pepper shaker. “An LRIG and a Navi are _super_ different, but are in the same….same…..body..thingy”

“You mean they share the same Frame Data.” Yuichiro explained before Eldora could.

“Right! Just like these condiment things! Now I don’t know much about science, but I do know that I think my analogy is right! So normally an LRIG wouldn’t even resemble a Navi outside of her Level0 form.” She poured some salt in her hand, then a tiny, tiny bit of pepper over it. “It’s like that, just enough to function as a Navi and let them do anything a Navi can. MegaMan’s like this!” She poured more salt into her hand, then the pepper. _‘Oooh it’s all uneven!’_ It was supposed to be an equal amount, like a yin-yang thing! Math sucked sometimes! “You see? He’s got some of column a, but a _lot_ of column b!”

“....” Yuichiro caught himself staring. “That was an excellent summary Chiyori!” He said, trying to keep the surprise out of his voice. “I’m impressed!” She beamed at him and did a fist bump, which had the side effect of sending the salt and pepper on the expensive carpet. “ _Anyway._ ” He turned back to the two younger kids. “I’m sure you four know what could be the reason for this, right?” The kids and their Navis nodded. Mayl looked as though she wanted to be anywhere but here. “Alright.” Chiyori made a zip motion across her lips, not knowing what was going on but having the good sense to not ask any questions. Eldora gave her a thumbs up. “Did either of you encounter LuckyRucky again?” Lan nodded nervously. “I see. And she froze your PET?” His son’s silent uncharacteristic anger told him everything. “This is like Gospel all over again…” The older man whispered in anger, leaning back in his chair slightly as he remembered Kotobuki’s reality warping anomalies.

“Just for the record, Mr.Hikari-” Mayl spoke up. “-I can’t say much. Do you remember that glitch you couldn’t fix with Roll?”

Yuichiro nodded. “So that pertains to that death curse you and Chiyori were talking about?”

Lan’s brain shorted out when he heard that. “What death curse?” He looked to Mayl frantically. “Was that why you were so scared?!” Mayl said nothing, clutching her PET tightly. “Sorry, sorry!” He dropped the question. “So they can’t say much about the game, or they could die?”

“Yep.” Chiyori answered blankly. “She’s seen it, I’ve seen a _lot_ of it too. There was even a weekly newsletter back when I was their age showing what happened to girls who tried to tell anyone.”

|I wouldn’t try looking through our PET’s.| Roll said, knowing exactly what Mr.Hikari was thinking. |I could show you the files right now, and you wouldn’t be able to see them.|

 _‘Just like back then.’_ Yuichiro thought. Mayl was too spooked from this; he needed to wrap this up quickly, so he looked to Chiyori. “These SIGNI BattleChips, are they under the same rules as the newsletter?”

“Yep! Chiyori answered, patting her heart. “And that’s all I can say.” She saw Mayl stare at her chest with wide eyes. “You feel it too huh?”

“Y-yeah…” Her entire body was shaking now, and she was no longer able to hide it. “C-can I go home please?”

“Yes.” Lan and his dad looked at each other in slight surprise for the Jinx moment before the young Hikari started talking. “You can go. I can walk you home if you-” Mayl muttered thanks and quickly booked it out of there, slamming the door behind her. “...I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Yeah, ok.” Yuichiro turned off the emitter and disconnected their PETs, but kept the wires on top of Lan’s. “I’ll write you a note excusing you from school for a week. You can Jack MegaMan in with those cords.” Lan offered his thanks and went to bed, leaving the patriarch alone with Chiyori. “There’s a guest bedroom next to mine. I’ll call your parents and let them know where you are.” Which is something he should have done with how long they were stuck in traffic. Egg on his face.

“No need to worry.” Chiyori said with a half hearted smile. “My folks don’t mind. They stopped asking where I go at night ever since I was 12! They totally trust me!” The arrogance in her voice and the shaking of Eldora’s head told Yuichiro two conflicting stories. “Thanks for the offer Mr.Hikari!”

* * *

  
PET in hand, Yuichiro guided Chiyori to the guest room before heading into his and his wife’s room. The bed looked like the world’s most beautiful oasis right now, but there were more important matters to attend to. He dialed a number into his PET and waited for the dial tone to stop.

 **CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. SIGNAL BLOCKERS ACTIVE.** Yuichiro smiled at that. The man was just as paranoid as ever, thank goodness. {To think you would call me.} The voice on the other end was someone you would only call as a last resort, a pariah on the level of Dr.Cain. years of living in Japan had removed a lot of the thickness in his Russian accent though the Hikari father of two could hear it pepper his every word. {What happened?}

“My father happened.” Yuichiro answered. “There’s another-”

{I’ll be there in three hours.}

Yuichiro was met with the dial tone once again. “Thank you Cossack.” He and his son were now in this twisted game, and no one had a clue if this death curse could affect them, and if Chiyori pounding her chest was a warning, then he had to make sure he told the man as little as possible.

It was just like talking to his bosses, only without booze and potentially illegal substances hampering their judgement. This was not going to be fun.

* * *

  
_**To:** Piruluk.EXE.  
 **From:** DimLight  
 **Sent:** Monday, 19:00  
 **Subject:** The Meeting Begins_

 _This is your proof of entry **(File: EnTRy.EPUB)** Don’t be late._

 _ **(File: HotelLink.Wrp)**_

 _That is a one way link from your PET to the meeting spot. Make sure your mess of a Selector doesn’t see it._

 _And for your sake, I hope you have something to bite on when the meeting starts. Lord Wily wasn’t happy with you breaking the rules and your little stunt earlier today. It’s going to hurt when you get here. Count on it._

 _Don’t worry though, you won’t be alone. That scuba-suit wearing moron will suffer along with you._

**That was it for this chapter. Next one will pick up before Akira and Ruko’s battle, and then a wrapup chapter. Two more chapters until i can begin the flashman arc! Half a buttload of unedited pages that almost equals this fic’s current amount as of this writing!**


	10. Prelude to a Flashy Night Part 2: Tama Vs Piruluk!

**ACDC Academy, 16:45  
Ruko’s Room**  
  
*BEEP *BEEP!* |You got a challenge Ruko!| Tama yelled. The room lit up with a dim white glow, coating everything inside as. |It’s Akira! She’s challenging you to a fight!|  
  
“....”And just like that, all of Ruko’s worries went away. Any sense of trepidation or caution gave way to a large, tooth filled smile.“What type of fight Tama? NetBattle, WIXOSS Duel?”  
  
|A Synchro Battle.| Tama’s face didn’t match her Selector’s, her face a mix of worry and the even the rarer common sense. She liked being with Ruko, even more so in a true battle between Selectors, sure, but…|But don’t we have work to do? You always said-|  
  
“Let’s go.” There wasn’t a hint of the apprehension or worry that was just on her face, only an ecstatic giddiness that was offset by just how hard she was gripping her fist in anticipation. With a normal person they would’ve drawn blood by now.  
  
Oh boy, this was gonna get messy, Tama could tell. She watched as her Selector loaded up the necessary programs onto the room’s computer and then the WIXOSS program from the PET. |Ruko, you said that-|  
  
“You’ll go all out.” Was all she said, causing whatever sense of intelligence Tama had regarding this situation to hide, deep in the part of the white LRIG’s brain where big thoughts usually went.. Her eyes widened tremendously, hers and Ruko’s faces matching in uncharacteristically feral grins. “Think she’s gonna cry?”  
  
|Yeah!| These faces were going to be something that neither girl will look on favorably once they came to their senses. |She’s gonna make super bad words like bleep and bleep!|  
  
“Uh-huh!” Yep, definite regret once they came to. “Just gotta wait for Akira to finish.”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
|You have to-|  
  
“-I know, I got it!”  
  
|Well I’m not connected, am I? So I think-|  
  
“Oh shut the fuck up!” Akira yelled as she once again entered the wrong passcode for the WIXOSS programs. “Did you change the passwords to fuck with me, _again_?!”  
  
Piruluk rolled her eyes internally, her face impassive as usual. |Not this time, no.| This was embarrassing. Three years since the last time they tried this, so Akira could be forgiven for not remembering the password. |It starts with Ru…| It was four letters, _english_ letters!  
  
“Damn it, what is it!” She typed in the next thing that came to her mind, and viola! “Ha! I didn’t need your help at all!”  
  
 _‘...She forgot I had admin control, didn’t she?’_ Akira’s laziness was going to make this operation smooth sailing tonight. |I’ll set up the installation and the auto-deleter. You get ready.|  
  
“Yeah yeah..” Akira’s mood lightened. The one time you shouldn’t care whether you win or lose in a WIXOSS fight, and the rush was fucking amazing! And so she stared at the computer screen as it turned a bright blue. She stared...and stared….and stared….  
  
Piruluk waited until the idiot’s eyes were as dull as her empathy before getting in contact with her associates. |I’m online. Those idiots should be done soon. Make sure to cover their tracks while I’m busy.|  
  
  
  


* * *

  
Ruko stared at the white screen, staring….staring...staring….  
  
|There we are!| Tama said happily, feeling Ruko in her as she too felt all feeling leaving her body. |This is gonna be...so...so…|  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
|Connection established.| Piruluk stated. She had the currently hypnotized Akira get comfortable on her bed, arranging her pillows and blanket so that she wouldn’t wake up with another set of pulled muscles. The human girl stared dully at the screen as a chilly blue light overpowered her vision. |Ready?| This was going to be a rough operation, but this was the perfect way to blow off steam. This battle type was a privilege only high ranking players like them could enjoy, and it was as addicting as it was overpowering.  
  
“Uh huh….Gate...Open…”  
  
  
  
And with that simultaneous utterance from the two humans, both girls were dead to the world.  
  


* * *

  
  
**ACDC Academy, 17:00  
Class 2-A**  
  
When Mari had her sister train her to defend herself, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Yuriko Ozono taught her everything she knew, within reason of course; the former WWW agent was like Hercules compared to her sister’s Higsby. There was a decent amount of muscle underneath Ms.Mari’s clothes, belying the incredible strength that her sister made sure to beat into her. Heck, it was safe to say as well that she had more muscle on her than most of the older students in the athletics clubs! One of the other things Yuri taught her was how to use a program that could detect dangerous gases, and to help with that, she gave her twin an app to put on her PET.  
  
An app that was making very loud beeping noises just as she was about to leave her classroom. “Oh boy.” With a roll of her eyes she took out the device, expecting to see something ‘funny’ the 1st grade teacher Motohama shared with everyone. A couple seconds later she was out the door, heading deep into the school’s depths.  
  
And if she was listening closely, she could hear something that sounded like moving sand. Her attention turned to one of her fellow teachers, heading into one of the utility rooms. _‘Now what could he be doing?’_  
  


* * *

  
  
  


**BATTLE ROUTINE ACTIVATED  
FIELD: SNOWY BEACH  
BATTLE TYPE: SYNCHRO  
SELECTORS: AKIRA AOI, RUKO KOMINATO  
LRIGS: TAMA.EXE, PIRULUK.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH COUNT: 1  
LIFE CLOTH HP TOTAL: 40,000  
WIXOSS CERTIFICATION: MIZUSHIMA.LM  
SHIRO.LM  
CERTIFICATION ACCEPTED  
LOADING BATTLEFIELD**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**????**  
  
There was no time.  
  
There was no gravity.  
  
There weren’t any sensations at all for the Selectors, for as of this moment, both girls and their LRIGs no longer existed in the forms they originally had. Two became one, plural became singular, and the beings that they once were no longer existed for the time being. This was a _true_ battle after all, their minds and bodies working as one to slake their lust for battle.  
  
When their respective lights faded, Akira and Ruko found themselves staring at each other. Or rather, Piruluk and Tama respectively found themselves staring at each other, both of them wearing their Selector’s clothes and a mixture of their Level 0 hairstyles and their human companions. Their pale white skin tones had adopted their Selector’s peachier complexions, and one could see clear expressions on their faces, arrogance in Piruluk's case, and attentive confidence. Power surged through the souls of the Selectors, a beautiful sensation that they long since missed. This was the best, no, the _only_ way for Selectors to fight, up close and personal, where you could feel the sheer power at your fingertips!  
  
The field this time was a winter beach. The water was frozen, and patches of road and dirt were iced over, with a few frozen cars on the cement and hanging off the broken bridges above. The skybox this time was of a 1990s looking American city, with an impressive depth of field to it.  
  
“It’s been a while Tama.” The ice LRIG said politely, her bluish orange hair fluttering in the frozen coastal wind. “You’re just as lively as ever.”  
  
“Yep!” The LRIG yelled with pride, brushing a bit of white and brown hair from her face.her voice was...hard to listen to, Ruko and Tama’s voice speaking simultaneously from her lips. “Jealous of my duds aren’t ya?”  
  
“..Extremely.” Normally, Tama’s Level 0 form was almost insulting to the LRIG’s character, and Tama would agree if she cared/ was intelligent. It was a pitch black prison jumpsuit with the kanji 宄(traitor) etched into the thin fabric with as much hatred and rage as possible, jagged, sloppy, with a few strokes that were made in Mayu’s fury. A thick black, helmet would cover her head with the kanji 賊(traitor) engraved into it, and into every other part of her outfit as though the letters were _stabbed_ into it. The only bit of color that was on her was her pale white, almost milky skin. Compared to that, this fusion of her and Ruko was less depressing to look at. She still had her long hair, though it was intertwined with Ruko’s brown strands in a candy cane like matter, with Ruko’s frontal bangs casting a shadow over her forehead. The fancy suit she wore was a pristine white, save for the black cuffs around her sleeves and ankles. The collar was popped and extended, looking more like a pair of wings.  
  
‘Tama’ just laughed. “You don’t look too bad yourself!” ‘Piruluk’ had her wavy fluffy looking hair, but it was Akira’s cool carrot color! And then she had Akira’s hair in the back, but it looked like a snowcone! Or was it snowflake! Yeah, it was a snowflake! That pretty dress Piruluk had in her LRIG form sucked now though. It was all frumpy and wrinkled! The pretty skirt looked like a pair of inflated clown pants, and all the white in the frills went into making the orange color even brighter! The dress part was mixed in with some ugly shirt that was two sizes too big on her,flooding down to her ugly pants! It didn’t look good at all!  
  
“...You know you said a lot of that out loud right?”  
  
“What’s your point?”  
  
“Nothing. Piruluk began clenching her fists and moving her arms back and forth. _‘There’s no lag this time.’_ Akira must’ve really wanted this fight. “We’ve ogled each other enough. Are you ready?”  
  
“Yeah!” Tama cheered, pumping her fist. “Let’s go in order this time, Level0-Level 3! You can use your stupid BattleChips all you want if you think it’d help! Which it won’t, cause Tama’s awesome!”  
  
“I suppose.” Thankfully Wily’s modifications, what little he or Mayu could make to WIXOSS related rules, would bar Akira from her thoughts once the game ended. If that idiot started blabbing about things like ‘Full Synchro’, The meeting was going to be even more painful for her.  
  
“And we’ll be playing until one of us loses just one Life Cloth!” A bit of Akira came into Piruluk’s face, causing Tama to laugh. “It’s blatantly obvious that you’re in trouble! “A bit of Ruko peppered Tama’s words. “That’s fair right?”  
  
“Yes it’s fair.” Damn albino bitch. Said bitch then put a pink card into her hand.  
  
“There you go!”  
  
Piruluk stared at her, then back at the card, surprise written all over her. “Are you sure?”  
  
“Yep!”  
  
“...Ok then.” She closed her eyes and activated the card. “Wish Heal”  
  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY RESTORED TO MAX FOR DURATION OF THE MATCH.**

  
  
  
Tama laughed at the glare. "We got some crazy rewards for doing a lot of Synchro Battles! Ruko’ll give you a full heal when the operation starts, don’t worry!”  
  
“You’d better.” Oh this was going to make the meeting a whole lot more bearable, even more than the fact that BubbleMan was going to suffer with her. “Are you ready?”  
  
“HECK YEAH! BATTLE!” And then she disappeared.  
  
  
  
“Barrier100.” A sphere appeared around Piruluk’s body just as Tama reappeared behind her, the orb pushing the pale girl back a centimeter or two, but it didn’t stop her from easily smashing the shield with her fist. The 2 second delay was enough for Piruluk to gain some distance, hopping backwards onto the road in just three kicks of her feet. Tama quickly followed, cheerfully smiling all the while as Tama’s Custom Gauge filled first. _‘Now which should I use_?’  
  
  


**FIRST GROWTH: TAMA**

  
  
  
  
“TAMA, WAXING CRESCENT MOON MIKO!” The Light LRIG’s skin returned to it’s milky complexion,her hair growing out longer into two large black and white pigtails that reached past her knees. The pants and undershirt turned into a sleeveless white dress. The rest of the suit turned into a frilly white blazer that felt like a natural extension of the dress, save for the tie alone. “NO THAT’S WHAT TAMA’S TALKING ABOUT!”  
  
 _‘Damn it.’_ Another minute left before hers filled. She dodged out of the way as Tama continued her happy, laughing punching spree, the white LRIG having decided that fists sucked, so now she began trying to smash her with one of the cars. _‘Good thing Tama is so simple minded.’_ Dodge left, dodge right, dodge left, dodge right. If this was a regular battle -Jump up and kick off the wall -then jump on the hood of the car -then Ruko would have made Tama use a card already- slide down, smash through the window, kick her in the face, and while in the car, keep doing it.  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 39,800**

  
  
  
  
“OWOWOOWW!” It didn’t do much damage to Tama, but it hurt like hell. Piruluk kicked off the back seat of the car and landed on the upper levels of the battlefield as Tama dropped the car and rubbed her nose. “That hurt!” She yelled she glared at her with a grin. “Tama likes it! Kukri, Small Sword!  
  
 _‘That part’s definitely Ruko.’_ Piruluk thought as a grey and white knight’s helmet formed over Tama’s face. She then dropped the sword and launched herself upward, the blue LRIG just barely getting out of the way as the white/brown haired girl slammed into the rock head first, smashing through the rock and coming out the other end, before she could turn around however… “You dropped this.”  
  
  


_**SLASH!** _

**TAMA.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 32,800  
-3000 FROM ATTACK  
SYNCHRO PENALTY:-2000 PENALTY FOR LETTING  
OPPONENT USE YOUR OWN WEAPON AGAINST YOU**

  
  
  
  
  
Tama’s thick head made contact with the frozen icy lake. She quickly got up, gritting her teeth in pain as Piruluk stared her down in the distance, with her own sword. “Fine fine, Tama’ll use the weapons!” Ruko’s mindset could be _sooo_ annoying sometimes!  
  
  
  


* * *

  
**ACDC Academy, 17:24  
Floor 2, Utility Room 5**  
  
“Mariko, what are you doing back here?”  
  
Ms. Mari shrugged as she entered the utility room, noting the man fiddling with one of the circuit breakers. “I forgot to double-check-” A flash from the surveillance camera blended her for as second. “-my work plans for the next few weeks, so I came in to get some snacks.” That was weird. She looked the man over. _‘45 years old,thin as a pole, weak constitution..._. _’_ The man couldn’t handle the summer heat, much less the heat here, without passing out! And yet here he was, messing with the power for this floor and sweating like a fat man in a thick winter coat during the summer! Even ignoring all that, just looking in his eyes told her that something was very very wrong, but he didn’t have to worry anymore.A simple pinch on the neck sent him to the ground in an unconscious, noodly heap. “There we go!” Surveillance was disabled, and the entire school network was dark. Time to get to work. “Delete….delete…”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
_‘Tama’s sword is in Piruluk’s hand...but it’s still Tama’s…’_ Oooh, she got a nice idea! “Fingu, Small Fist!” A white, featureless hachimaki appeared over and around her forehead. White energy coated her arms and hands fading to reveal two small, segmented fingerless gauntlets with pink guards. “Now let’s see that power boost!”  
  
  


**FINGU, SMALL FIST  
[CONSTANT]AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ANOTHER <ARM> SIGNI  
ON THE FIELD, THIS SIGNI'S POWER BECOMES 5000.  
CURRENT POWER: 5000**

  
  
  
  
“I take it you messed up?”  
  
“...Yeah.” Tama lied with a Ruko-like glint in her eyes as Piruluk was just inches away. “I just PACIFIGREATKNOWLEDGEPLAY!”  
  
  


**PACIFI, GREAT KNOWLEDGE PLAY  
NO CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN MET**

  
  
  
  
A loud squeaky noise was all Piruluk had as a warning before her face was hit with a pillow.  
  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 40,000  
-1000HP**

  
  
  
  
It didn’t hurt much, since they were pillows, but it did knock her back a few feet. And it was enough of a shock to cause her to drop the sword, which Tama then immediately picked up before it dropped, turned around, and gave Piruluk a very savage grin, to which the Ice LRIG could only let out an ‘Oh shit.’, as Tama now had two active SIGNI.  
  
“SWORDYTIME!  
  
  


**SECOND GROWTH: PIRULUK**

  
  
  
  
  
Piruluk hastily opened up her Custom Window. _‘Always at the worst time…’_ She didn’t have enough space to safely Grow right now! First came the fist….  
  
  


**-5000HP**

  
  
Which Tama used to uppercut her into the air. Then she came up and sent her back down with an axe kick-  
  
  


**-400HP**

  
And then suddenly appeared below Piruluk to send her back up with another kick-  
  
  


**-400HP**

  
  
-And then another!

  
**-400HP**

****

****

****

****

****

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY:32,800  
CLOSING PIRULUK.EXE CUSTOM WINDOW**

  
  
  
  
_‘Yes.’_ A good pick this time! Good thing she didn’t select all her cards on the first turn. _‘Better save this one for later’_ Tama appeared below her, sword raised, ready for her to fall onto. Don’t Step.”  
  
“Uh-oh.”  
  
  


**DON’T STEP  
ARTS  
[USE TIMING]DURING ATTACK  
THE COST FOR USING THIS ARTS IS REDUCED BY 1 BLUE FOR EACH CARD REMAINING IN THE CUSTOM  
WINDOW IN EXCESS OF YOUR OPPONENT'S CURRENT CARDS  
REMAINING IN THE SLOT WINDOW. DISABLE/"DOWN" 2 OF YOUR OPPONENT'S SIGNI.**

**TAMA’S HAND: 4  
PIRULUK’S HAND: 10  
CONDITION 2 MET: DOWN TWO OF YOUR OPPONENT’S SIGNI  
Cost: 6 [BLUE] CARDS**

  
  
  
  
The now weaponless Tama jumped out of the way, but the motion caused her pigtails to move forward. This gave Piruluk enough of a grip to fling her forward as she landed. The blue LRIG flipped in the air and landed on her feet, dragging Tama forward by the hair -”Code Art: RFR.” -And slamming her down back first before grabbing the giant snowman that materialized and _slammed_ into the downed girl’s back!  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 31,000  
-1000HP  
PIRULUK.EXE: DRAW 1 CARD, THEN DISCARD 1**

  
  
  
  
  
Now was her chance! “Grow. Code Piruluk Kilo.”  
  
  


**CODE PIRULUK: KILO  
TYPE:LRIG LEVEL 1  
NO EFFECTS**

  
  
  
  
“OWwWwwwwwww….” Tama quickly got back on her feet, noting how warm she felt. Ruko’s caution took control as she noticed that Piruluk had Grown, but her appearance hadn't changed. “Hey uhh, I’m reading here that you’re in Code Piruluk K, so why….  
  
“I’m not getting in a nightie.”  
  
“That’s fair.” Yeah, Ruko wouldn’t dress up in a lot of those outfits either.  
  
  
  


**THIRD GROWTH: TAMA  
UP PHASE! KUKRI, SMALL SWORD  
CARD NOW UPPED AND READY FOR USE!**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
She’d keep those two for later. “GROW! Tamayorihime, Shooting Star Miko!”   
  
  
  


**TAMAYORIHIME, SHOOTING STAR MIKO  
TYPE:LRIG LEVEL 2  
[CONSTANT] ALL YOUR WHITE SIGNI GAIN 1000 ATTACK  
BUSTER CHARGE POWER INCREASED TO 200**

  
  
  
  
  
The transformation began. Two wings appeared out of the sides of her head, the top ones half the length of her arms, and the bottom ones much shorter. The big wings were gold on her right and white on her left, with the much smaller wings having their colors reversed. Tama’s clothes lost a few inches, her hair shortened to shoulder length, long slits on the sides of her hair forming as an ornate, jeweled saber with a golden base appeared in her left hand. A metal chestplate and v-shaped codpiece appeared over the dress.Tama quickly selected her cards and pressed the ADD button, closing the window and activating a card as Piruluk came after her with another Code Art: RFR. _‘She has another card ready.’_ The white LRIG thought as Piruluk threw the snowman. She barely dodged it as the smiling sculpture splattered against the ground.  
  
  


* * *

  
**ACDC Academy, 18:00  
Administrative Parking Lot**  
  
Meanwhile, Ms.Mari’s intuition was flaring up as she found herself in the school’s private parking lot. _‘Ooooh **crap.’**_ There were two things wrong with this situation.  
  
1:The private parking lot was for the school’s bankrollers and administrators, and as such was a lot cleaner and more grand than the one for regular employees like her. So what happened here?! Nearly every one of these super expensive cars that cost more than she’d make in her entire life were stripped down, save for the ones she knew had excellent routers or were made in conjunction with other internet companies that gave the car Wi-fi no matter the weather.   
  
2\. The fact that the program was detecting that the stuff was coming from here, meant that the people who signed her paychecks, aka people on the city council and had special permissions on the net that not even law enforcement had. And it seems someone used these to get inside the school. She counted over 30 executives in the parking lot all of them sleeping with dirtied clothes and dimwitted stares She quickly looked over two or three of them and found that they were completely unresponsive! She shook them, yelled at them, yelled at them while slapping them ~~to vent some justified anger~~ , but nothing! After slapping a few of them some more ~~for making the sleaziest passes at her,~~ she hooked up her PET to one of their cars to check it’s records. She turned on the screen and-  
  
  


_**FLASH** _

  
  
  
  
She blinked, not sure what that was about, she continued her pilfering.  
  
All the while, she was unaware of what she was really doing, nor could she hear the sound of rushing sand from the speakers. On the cars’s network, a very thin and gangly purple Navi was sweating buckets. _‘Oh thank god!’_ Why did he have to be the one assigned to a bunch of lazy idiots?! _‘If I didn’t come here to check their work, this plan would’ve gone tits up!’_ God the Bubble Brigade sucked!  
  
  
  


* * *

  
_‘Tch!’_ Piruluk activated an Aqua Tower under Tama’s feet to catch her off guard, launching the white LRIG up into the air. _‘So they had to go that far huh?’_ So the direct form of FlashMan’s hypnosis worked best for now. “Beleth, Brass Instrument of Demonic Seas.” A tuba appeared in her hand, and soon she began playing it as Tama began to fall.  
  
  


**BELETH, BRASS INSTRUMENT OF DEMONIC SEAS  
[ON-PLAY]DISCARD 1 DEVIL SIGNI FROM YOUR HAND: UNTIL THE END OF THIS TURN, 1 OF YOUR OPPONENTS SIGNI LOSES 2000 POWER (A SIGNI WITH POWER 0 OR LESS IS BANISHED BY RULE.)  
[ON-PLAY 2] DISCARD 2 <DEVIL> SIGNI FROM YOUR HAND: BANISH 1 OF YOUR OPPONENT'S LEVEL 3 OR LESS SIGNI.  
CONDITION 2 MET (MANOMIN, HOODLUM OF DEMONIC SEASX2 DISCARDED) BANISH 1 ENEMY SIGNI)**

  
  
  
  
“HEY!” Tama yelled as she saw one of her inactive SIGNI disappear. “I needed-OW!” -And was then immediately hit by the sound waves of the tuba, sending her careening over a cliff onto the other side, landing head first in the sand.  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 30,000  
-1000!**

  
  
  
  
She felt Piruluk land next to her a couple seconds later, but before the blue LRIG could do anything, Tama’s legs wrapped around Piruluk, and pile-drived her head first into the sand. With a grin, Tama summoned Kukri Small Fist onto her left foot and-!  
  
 _ **SLAM!**_  
  
And she could _feel_ the Akira side of her opponent cursing up a storm in anger.  
  
  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 30,800**

  
  
  
  
  
With a loud scream Piruluk shot up from the sand, wincing from the pain in...well, Tama came up a second later, and there was a reason the white LRIG was acting as though she was hurt as well. “FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKOOOWW!” Seeing Piruluk writhe and rant like this was always a shock for Tama, but that’s what you get with a Synchro Battle, the best and worst of both worlds.  
  
“Tama’s _sooo_ sorr-”  
  
“YOU LITTLE BITCH!” And before Tama could apologize,’Piruluk’ was at her neck. While Piruluk was looking over some security footage. Being Mayu’s ‘bestie’ gave her many benefits, even if the little girl was inexperienced with her powers.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
**ACDC Academy, 18:30  
Academy Financial Vault**  
  
 _Benjiro Nagatoro, school headmaster. Unresponsive.  
  
Michelle Thompson, foreign relations and head translator. Unresponsive. Is currently acting out an episode of some foreign show by the looks of it.  
  
Engu Hana, Financial advisor, responsible for deciding the monthly budgets for all teachers. Is currently bathing in a pile of money naked. Following the paper trail of bills he left, I found a massive vault filled with rows and rows of yen in multiple denominations.  
  
I shall continue recording what I find, but it appears that they were under some form of hypnosis. I hope no one else is, because from what I’ve seen from their car’s terminal records, they’ve been at this since after we left for SciLab!_  
  
 **File saved as Brainwash?.TXT**  
  
Ms.Mari closed her PET and put it away as she entered the vault. _‘And this is why I disabled the school surveillance.’_ She thought as she grabbed the money with her now gloved hands and piled the fat stacks into a large burlap sack. _‘They might’ve thought-’_ Or blamed her- _‘that I was responsible for all this!’_ Her sister’s need to show off really put Ms.Mar in the butt when it came to proving her trustworthiness to the paranoid old fogies. _‘Maybe if I could-’_ Oooh don’t forget the Fukuzawas! ¥10,000 bills everywhere! _‘-Figure out how the intruder did all this and why, they’d let me off the hook!’_ The intrusion had to have happened between 11-16:00. There were over fourteen guest accounts made between that time on the car terminals, all of them with IP Addresses that lead to some no name, run of the mill shock site. So from her NetBattle class to when she got back, and in addition there was that forced logout MegaMan ordered for South Hirosabe, and Lan’s emotional state during most of the trip. She didn’t survive over 4 terrorist attacks, one of them was attempted brainwashing without -Ooooh, Saiko would love this gold!- having a good head on her shoulders! The words ‘NetBattle Class’ and ‘Lan’s emotional state’ repeated in her mind over and over again, along with something else that she for some reason was trying to forget….  
  
“Lan and MegaMan _weren’t_ supposed to fight in her NetBattle Class for the first match!” That’s it! “Someone hacked my classroom’s server!”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
_‘And there it is-GAH!’_ Piruluk thought as Tama punched her in the face. “Do you mind?” A good clump of her hair was missing, and a good portion of her limbs were purpled  
  
“YES TAMA MINDS!” Tama yelled, right in her face before punching her again. Her neck had bright red handprints around it, and one of her headwings was bent, along with her left eye being swollen. “CHOKING HURTS!”  
  
“I know, that’s why I-OW!” That teacher needed to be silenced. “AquaTower3.”  
  
“HA!” Tama jumped in the air to avoid it- “That’s not gonna hit Tama-aAAEEGGG!” -Only for the tower to spawn from the rocks behind her, sending her _flying._ “WHHOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!”  
  
 _‘That’s not gonna keep her down for long.’_ Shit, Akira was going to bitch about this like nothing else. _‘I need to do something about that teacher.’_ ~~Lan liked the woman~~ Her ex-WWW sister - AKA her morally dubious, no fucks given about killing people if they cross her, sister- would get involved if anything happened to her twin, and soooo…  
  
  


**FOURTH GROWTH: PIRULUK**

  
  
  
  
_‘Ah good.’_ Just when she finished sending the message to FlashMan. “Grow. Allos Piruluk-” Shit she didn’t Grow before opening the Custom Window. That was a pain… “Grow. Code Piruluk Exa. She grew a large thin, flowing blue ribbon on the side of her head, four wings in the shape of icicles floating separately from her body, and a trident. “Hm.” One of her favorite forms from a design standpoint alone. Now instead of that ugly combo of hers and Akira’s outfit, she was back in her blue and whte gown. it felt so good not having to wear a freaking bra and tank top. Snitching on Mayu for that was worth the punishment.  
  
  


**CODE PIRULUK: EXA  
TYPE:LRIG LEVEL 2  
[ON-PLAY] FROM YOUR LRIG DECK, YOU MAY USE ONE BLUE ARTS WITH USE TIMING [MAIN PHASE] WHOSE TOTAL COST IS 3 OR LESS WITHOUT PAYING ITS COST.  
BUSTER SHOT HAS CHANGED TO ICE TRIDENT.**

  
  
  
  
Piruluk pulled the card she wanted as Tama came back with a pouting snarl. “CHEAP!” She looked kinda cute like that. “You always use that stupid-”  
  
“-Peeping Analyze.”  
  
  


**PEEPING ANALYZE  
USE TIMING [MAIN PHASE]DECLARE A NUMBER. LOOK AT YOUR OPPONENT'S HAND, AND DISCARD ALL SIGNI WITH THE SAME LEVEL AS THE DECLARED NUMBER.**

  
  
  
  
  
Tama blanched. “Uh-oh.”  
  
Piruluk smiled very Akira-ly. “Thank you for being so honest. I’m going to guess you have Level 4 cards?”  
  
  


**CORRECT  
TAMA.EXE MUST NOW DISCARD 4 CARDS.**

  
  
  
  
  
“....” Piruluk just stared at the temper tantrum that ensued. She couldn’t tell which of the two in that fusion was causing it. “  
  
  


**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY REACTIVATED**

  
  
  
  
Oh, Mayu was watching, that sucked. At least it explained why those punches hurt more.  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE(LV2)  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 29,000  
PIRULUK.EXE(LV2)  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 30,800**

  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
**ACDC Academy, 18:36  
Ventilation Control Room**  
  
“Mariko, can you hand me that soldering iron?”  
  
“Sure thing Sugitomo.” So much work so much work! “So this circuit connects to the main ventilation shaft right?”  
  
“Yep! Those kids won’t know what hit them once the mission starts!” Now Sugitomo wasn’t an idiot given that he graduated from Tokyo U twice -the second time for funsies-, but even he knew something like this wasn’t right! “Mariko, why are we doing this again?”  
  
Ms.Mari shrugged as the two of them soldered the circuit board into the computer, the W on the front of it glowing with an angelic white. “This seems like something my sister did when working for WWW. she’d modify the hardware with these components so a Navi can bypass any security checks or size limits.”  
  
“Fascinating!” ...There was something _veeerry_ wrong here.” Oh, it looks like the principal’s breaking free; club him on the head will you Mariko?”  
  
“Sure thing!”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
Piruluk was the first to act. She rushed forward with Tama coming after a second later, summoning her trident and reeling her arm back. Before Tama could dodge out of the way, Piruluk quickly kicked sand straight into the LRIG’s eyes before dismissing her weapon, grab Tama by the hair, and _slammed_ her into the ground face first!  
  
 **SHHKK!**  
  
And then she stabbed the trident into Tama’s back!  
  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE(LV2)  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 29,000  
-500HP**

  
  
  
  
“Kanburi, Water Phantom.” A fishing rod appeared in Piruluk’s hands. She jumped a good three feet away and snapped the lure against Tama’s dress until the hook got caught up in the hem.with barely any effort, she pulled Tama out of the sand a good 12 feet into the air and _slammed_ her back down!  
  
“HengaoBenevolentPlay!” A gust of wind kept her from hitting the ground, though the attack still registered.  
  
  


**-5000HP**

  
  
  
  
Tama sighed in relief as the wind and the fishing rod disappeared. Sometimes you gotta waste a card to avoid the pain train! _‘Two cards left.’_ And her Level 3 Growth was too far away. Tama quickly rolled back onto her feet and began firing Buster shots, which Piruluk easily deflected with her trident. Piruluk moved in closer in a serpentine pattern to avoid her shots, and everytime Tama came within stabbing range, she jumped back, using her head wings to give her some extra distance. _‘Come on come on!’  
  
‘She’s trying to wait out the Custom Bar.’ _Piruluk realized as an Akira grin came onto her face. “Nice try. SlowGauge.”  
  
“DAMNIT!” HOW DID SHE EVEN GET A GIGACHIP?! “Fine!” The dodging and shooting continued until Tama had her back against the cliff wall. She jumped off of it, and aimed her left finger upwards.”Bonya, Small Bow!” She quickly summoned the weapon on her left wrist, a blue fin shaped crossbow with two mermaid-like tails at the end, and fired all five arrows into the sky.  
  
  


**BONYA, SMALL BOW  
[ON-PLAY] LOOK AT THE TOP 3 CARDS OF YOUR DECK.  
THEN, PUT THEM BACK IN ANY ORDER.**

  
  
  
  
  
Tama quickly looked over the cards as Piruluk launched the trident upwards, and put them back. She quickly turned around and grabbed the trident.  
  
  


-500HP

  
  
  
  
The very _sharp_ trident. “OWOWOWOOWOWOW!” She managed to grab the pole of the weapon as she descended, Piruluk’s mild shock at what she just saw giving way to her usual indifference as she quickly made herself scarce from the area. “F-forgot aboOOOOWWWWW that, didn’t ya?!”  
  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE(LV2)  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 30,800  
SYNCHRO PENALTY:-2000 PENALTY FOR LETTING OPPONENT USE YOUR OWN WEAPON AGAINST YOU**

  
  
  
  
Piruluk snarled. And then she went face first into the ground as three of the five arrows came down and hit her in the head.  
  
  


**-3000 HP FROM MULTI-HIT ATTACK**

  
  
  
  
“Huh.” Was all Tama said. She was gonna use those arrows as a distraction while she aimed the last SIGNI in her hand at her, but she wasn’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. With a Ruko-like, savage grin, she jumped upward and stabbed the trident straight into Piruluk’s spine. “IT’S TRIDENT TIME!”  
  
  


**-800HP**

  
  
  


* * *

  
“Mariko, the NetBattle AI can’t be hacked that easily!” Said the 11th grade teacher Maehera, as he and Ms.Mari began running tests on the modified hardware. Both of their PETs were plugged into the network, using modified versions of the AutoNavis that came preinstalled with every PET. “The hacking software is the equivalent of quicksand! Even if someone _did_ get in and out while it was active, they’d have left a trail!”  
  
“I don’t think so Maehara.” Ms. Mari replied as she loaded the proper programs. “Hold on, what was the order?”  
  
“Run the Emulator for the operating system, load it into the AutoNavi, and then cancel to force a shutdown.”  
  
“Ok.” She did just that and recorded the results before continuing. “There.”  
  
“Alright. So why do you think that the hacking occurred earlier than what you said? Be sure the chat window is set to private so they can hear you.”  
  
“I already did. And I say that because the system’s last defense takes the longest to turn on. It’s powered by a Giga Chip after all, so the system has to adjust the settings so neither it or the chip overloads. A Navi could It was powered by one of the strongest Giga Chips out there, AntiNavi. A chip that can take a Navi Chip from the enemy and let the user use it instead, it was modified so that it would _take_ any Navi that tried to hack it. “Only a Navi can access the folders where the AI files are kept.”  
  
“...Are you saying a sentient program that isn’t a Navi hacked into the system?”  
  
“Beats me, I’m just speculating. It’s not like we’re gonna remember what happens here, right?”  
  
“True true. Now let’s run the Shining Crasher prototype…”  
  
  
  


* * *

  
Once Piruluk began screaming from the pain, she grabbed Tama by the leg and began to pull, using the momentary distraction to dismiss her trident and roll onto her back. “OOOOOWWWWWW!” GOD SHIT THAT HURT!  
  
 _ **WHAM!**_  
  
And so did the kick to her stomach! The blue LRIG was sent flying a good foot into the air, right into where Tama’s fist was waiting. Sadly for the white LRIG, Akira was nothing if not petty. “Slowgauge.”  
  
“OH COME ON!” Tama quickly jumped back and began running, keeping an eye on Piruluk, who landed and began firing. _‘Well at least she used up her two GigaChips.’_ She wouldn’t have to worry about those for the rest of the fight!  
  
 _‘Why did I use that?!’_ Piruluk thought as Tama kept dodging her shots. _‘That was my ace in the hole if that idiot reached Level 3 or higher!’_ And now that Tama knew that she had the memory capacity to wield two Giga Chips, every other Selector/LRIG duo was going to be on high alert!  
  
  
  
  


**FIFTH GROWTH: PIRULUK  
ALERT! FLASHMAN.EXE REQUESTS ASSISTANCE!**

  
  
  
  
“Great.” Even so, Piruluk smiled at Tama’s frustrated yell. At least something good came out of Akira’s spite. She quickly chose her cards and closed out the Custom Window. _‘I have too many benefits at the moment to Grow.’_ She discarded the option and loaded her next card. “Precious.”  
  
  


**PRECIOUS  
SPELL  
DRAW 5 CARDS, THEN DISCARD 2 FROM YOUR HAND.**

  
  
  
  
  
Still firing, Piruluk took her five new cards and discarded two of them. Then she loaded up one of the first ones, surprised that they even came up this turn. _‘Akira really wanted to try these once they came out.’_ But they never had the money for it, and even now these five were all they could afford. _‘Five cards and one BattleChip left. Time to put them to use.’_ “Titanium, Natural Source.” She didn’t activate the card, so the 3D model didn’t load, but she loaded up two other cards and set them in the sand before making a break for it. Seems FlashMan has a problem she needed to fix. She ran into one of the cars and hid in it. “I’m busy; what do you want?”..... “Are you crazy? You have the software I have, you know she’ll detect it if I-” …. “Fine.” Piruluk narrowed her eyes and began to chant. “Just keep the connection stable.”  
  
  
  


**“A Girl prayed to fulfill her wish.  
Scattered strange gene "wixoss"  
all around the world fusion into one form.  
Searching in vain for a fight...  
Victory will be the only way for her  
wish to revolutionize.  
Now, shall her "Wish Across" be conquered.**”

* * *

  
  
  
**ACDC Academy, 18:45  
Class 2-A**  
  
“See?” Ms.Mari showed the other teachers as she uploaded the data logs from her computer to their PETs. “My time was a bit off, but I was right! Something accessed the systems, and right in the middle of class too! But I can’t make heads or tails of….” Her eyes narrowed. “Why is the school network being accessed by SciLab North?”  
  
“SciLab north?!” One of the teachers shouted incredulously. “Ain’t that the second chance place?!”  
  
“Yes.” Ms. Mari answered as she attempted to get in contact with the admin Navi for the school. “And it’s a powerful connection too, far greater...than…...tha…..”She soon fell to the floor, and so did every other teacher in the room, the temperature too great for them to stay conscious.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
_**?????  
18:45**_  
  
Inside the car, Piruluk was not having a good time.“Son...of a….bitch….” Her face was caked with sweat, pupils shrunk. “Did...you...really..have..to do that?!” Of course he didn’t! FlashMan could’ve easily knocked them all out, the sadistic dildo-looking lightbulb! _‘And I have 15 minutes left before-’_  
  
“SURPRISE!” -And then she was suddenly pelted in the back of the head by _rattles,_ with such force that it sent her skidding out of the car and into the sand face first. “FOUND YOU!” Tama yelled with pride as she stood atop the ruined car with a proud smile and crossed arms. “You’re really good at hide and seek!”  
  
“Uh-huh…” Piruluk shakily got up, wiping the sweat off her face. Playground Equipment SIGNI, the most humiliating ways to get your ass kicked.  
  
  
  
  
  


**PIRULUK.EXE(LV2)  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 25,000  
-5000HP**

  
  
  
  
_‘Oh, good.’_ Down to 20,000HP. And Tama grew to Level 3 while she was distrac….Piruluk blinked. “..........What the hell am I looking at?”  
  
  


**TAMAYORIHIME ~THE LOOKS OF 0, AND THE INTELLECT LEVEL OF 3~  
TYPE:LRIG LEVEL 3  
NO EFFECTS**

  
  
  
  
“TAMA DOESN’T KNOW!” The now 3 foot tall chibi said proudly, her limbs stubby and her head massive. “She liked that old show, Pop Team Epic, and she won this contest, and Ruko laughed! So there!”  
  
  
“.....Ok.” So it was just a glorified skin then. Piruluk shelved her disbelief for now; no doubt Akira was going to laugh her face off when she reviewed the battle data. _‘3-2 more attacks, then I’m finished.’_ At Tama’s current level, she had access to 7-10k attack cards that didn’t need effects or other active cards to reach that level. _‘This form of hers however…’_ She might just have a chance. She revealed Titanium, Natural Source, and motioned for Tama to come closer with the giant, steam powered glove. She just had to lure the idiot into her trap, and she might have a chance to turn this around! Just as long as Ruko’s common sense didn’t butt in!  
  
 _‘Tama can beat her in her next move!’_ She grinned and jumped high into the air. “SAY GOODBYE! SPRING, BENEVOLENT PLAY!”  
  
  


**SPRING, BENEVOLENT PLAY  
ON-PLAY: DRAW 1 CARD, AND PUT 1  
CARD FROM YOUR HAND ON TOP OF YOUR DECK.**

  
  
  
  
A yellow, flat-seated playground spring appeared below Tama as she fell. The LRIG grabbed onto it and sat down as she held her hands out as if to grasp something, purple reins appearing a second afterwards. The second her spring hit land however… “Vanadium, Natural Source.”  
  
 _ **SMASH!**_  
  
“KYAAAH!” A large grey obelisk shot out from behind!-  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE(LV3)**

**LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 23,500  
-5000HP**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Putting Piruuk in the lead and sending her headfirst into the blue LRIG’s giant fist! Piruluk reeled back-  
  
 _ **SLAM!**_  
  
  


**-7000HP**

  
  
  
  
  
And soon Tama was acquainted with the sand again! “Ah, so I was right.” Atom cards function like Object Type Battle Chips. Neat. And you could alter the angle of the attack even after you set it!  
  
 _‘Of course Akira would like Atom Cards!’_ Tama’s head wings flapped hard into the ground, giving her enough air to get her out of the sand faster. The now fistless Piruluk was rushing after her with the trident again. Tama rushed towards her opponent with a smile and uttered “Bobsle, Praiseworthy Play!” Causing a bobsled to appear under her, which she rode like a skateboard. “Here Tama comes!”  
  
“I know.” Good, Tama was in control now. “Take this!” She skidded to a halt when the bobsled was in the range of the blades of her trident, and stabbed it into the ground as Tama came close. Tama blanched -or rather tried to? The skin probably didn’t allow for anything other than smiling- realizing what was about to happen as Piruluk lifted the trident up, taking Tama and the bobsled with it and launching both the white LRIG and her weapon into the air. Ignoring the loud ‘WHEEEE!’ coming from her opponent’s lips, Piruluk activated the second trap she laid before FlashMan called her away. First she activated another Titanium, Natural Source, causing the gauntlet to reappear again, and then, she grew. “Grow. Code Piruluk: Gamma.  
  
She transformed for the third and final time. Her dress had changed colors again: the white gown underneath became a dark blue that ended in a light blue skirt, while the blue dress became white and long, with thick white fur forming on the hem. A golden star brooch kept the dress closed by its blue fabric. A blue jewel rested on her head with three crystals sprouting from it, akin to the six wings now floating behind her, with strands of blue energy crackled around her arms and wings.  
  
  
  


**CODE PIRULUK: GAMMA**

**[ON-PLAY] YOUR OPPONENT DISCARDS ONE CARD FROM THEIR HAND.**

  
  
  
  
  
Now at Level 3 and with Tama’s HP so low, she could wrap this up! She held out her gauntlet covered hand and opened her palm. “Manganese, Natural Source.” The gauntlet soon was covered in thick grey metal, enough to weigh it down considerably while not affecting it’s dexterity. “Oxygen, Natural Source.”  
  
  


**OXYGEN, NATURAL SOURCE**

**NO CONDITIONS HAVE BEEN MET**

  
  
  
  
“Uh-oh.” Tama quickly activated another Hengao,Benevolent Play, using the wind to push herself up even higher. “Inarikagi, Greatsword!” On Tama’s back formed what some kid would think was a cool sword, in reality a flat, square, spiral shape. “Phalanx, Great Shield Spear!”  
  
  
  


**PHALANX, GREAT SHIELD SPEAR**

**[AUTO 1/TURN] WHENEVER 1 OF YOUR <ARM> OR <WEAPON> SIGNI ENTERS THE FIELD BY AN EFFECT,  
BANISH 1 OF YOUR OPPONENT'S SIGNI WITH POWER EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN THAT SIGNI'S**

**ON-PLAY COLORLESS: ADD 1 <ARM> SIGNI AND 1 <WEAPON> FROM YOUR TRASH TO YOUR DECK AND SHUFFLE IT.  
IF YOU DO, RETURN 1 OF YOUR OPPONENT'S LEVEL 3 OR LESS SIGNI TO THEIR HAND**

  
  
  
  
  
“YEAH!” A good 14,000 right there, but not enough to take her out! “Tama’s gonna end this! With a grin she summoned the shield, ready to slam Piruluk with it as the second effect of the card began to activate-!  
  
  


**NEITHER CONDITION OF PHALANX, GREAT SHIELD SPEAR HAS BEEN MET  
NO SIGNI IN TRASH.  
NO SIGNI HAS ENTERED PLAY VIA EFFECT**

  
  
  
  
  
“....Oh.” And it looked like Piruluk was tired of waiting, using an Aqua Tower to gain an extraordinary amount of height and then jumping off. “Oohhhhhhh…..this was Tama’s L.” And here comes the giant fist!”  
  
  


**TAMA.EXE  
LIFE CLOTH DURABILITY: 11,500  
-8000HP  
-10,000HP  
LIFE CLOTH ** _**CRUSHED!** _

And thus the battle was over.

_**PIRULUK.EXE** _

_**YOU WIN!** _

_**REWARDS(BATTLECHIP)** _

_**COLDPNCH(L)** _

_**GEYSER(D)** _

_**(CARD REWARDS)** _

_**PEEPING ANALYZE(X5)** _

_**NOW RETURNING TO REALITY** _

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
**ACDC Academy, 19:10  
Akira’s Room**  
  
When your win record gets high enough, you were given the programs necessary to enter a Synchro Battle. LRIG and Selector merge into one, their thoughts and feelings coalescing into a single hole. Strategy and planning didn’t really matter here, as these fights didn’t count towards your win/loss record, and many LRIG abilities were locked. It was all about beating the everloving crap out of your opponent and enjoying doing it.  
  
As Piruluk came back to the PET, she noticed Akira had passed out with the biggest smile on her face. It took _every_ ounce of willpower, on both her’s and Wily’s ends, to get that little brat to exclude her and Akira from the other effects a Synchro Battle had on the Selector’s and LRIG’s psyche. There was only one girl she would dare share such feelings with, and it certainly wasn’t with this mess on the bed! Though once said mess saw the lackluster rewards, her anger would be hilarious; a much needed reprieve for the blue LRIG given what she was about to go through, especially given she was at the moment ten minutes late.  
  
 _‘It’s time to go.’_ The TetraCode, the death of MegaMan, it all came to a head tonight. Right after the beating.  
  
  


**PIRLUK.EXE LOGGING OUT**

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
.......] Tama’s face was red.  
  
“....” So was Ruko’s. “Sooooo uhhh...that was….”  
  
|.....Does this mean Ruko and Tama are-|  
  
“Nope! Nope!” Both girls sighed in relief. “We’re just friends!” Oh boy! Beating the crap out of someone with your bare hands was _so much **fun** , _~~even though she didn’t break anyone’s limbs~~ especially with the strength they just wielded, but the aftereffects? “I didn’t...dislike it!” Their minds merged, they saw everything the other experienced, a strange feeling of intimacy that was only ruined by the ‘Work In Progress, Ver.3.0’ hovering over the HP bar on the HUD. It was as eye opening as it was addicting, making you want more of it. But Ruko Kominato was a master of restraining herself from acting on her more violent urges, and so she did. The gym didn’t close for another hour, and they got those really tough punching bags today! “Let’s go exercise Tama!”  
  
|Sure!| Ruko picked her up, locked the door, and soon they were out the door to beat something up! And then they stopped! |Ruko, what’s wrong?|  
  
The brunette didn’t answer, too focused on the cars haphazardly driving out into the highway as though the drivers were drunk. “I think we might need to do some investigating before the meeting Tama.” And if her hunch was right, that punching bag was gonna have to be replaced again. Not her fault those stupid sandbags were so weak!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
**SciLab North, 19:10  
Restroom 1st floor**  
  
“Oh boy.” Mr. Match grumbled, reading the newspaper off of his PET as he paid dearly for his scheme to get some privacy. “FlameMan, you know what to-OUUGHHH!” Downing three large bottles of prune juice in under a minute, not the best idea! But still, he had to get DrillMan’s progress report to Wily without anyone noticing, and no one wanted to be in here after he drank six gallons of the stuff, and _especially_ after he ate so much chili! At least he had DrillMan’s fire resistance finished. The Breaking Element was a hard thing to code for, so he and FlameMan felt proud finally getting the thing working!  
  
“OUGHHH ROUND TWELVE!” The fact he was even able to build up a reputation to be left alone doing this spoke volumes to how low he was on the totem pole in the first WWW, intentionally so. Ken'ichi Hino, a repairman for Matsuri Repairs for five years, who was tricked into installing harmful programs into over 400 electric ovens, and was ‘unintentionally’ responsible for over 24 deaths. The media and the people wanted justice, and so he gladly gave himself up as a martyr, and some poor dumb sap who he pinned as the mastermind. Now he was here, a likeable if sassy man with an expertly crafted Fire Navi that made living in this cold and dreary building all the more bearable.  
  
And what was going to top his day off was his livestream of tonight’s meeting in ACDC. That little blue brat had too big a mouth on her, and after today’s fuckup, it was gonna be amazing seeing her drop down a peg or five.  
  
“OH GOD!” He just hoped he didn’t pass out!  
  
|Wraaah...Wrahhhh….|  
  
“YES I KNOW I SHOULD’VE JUST FAKED IT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO RUB IT IN!”


	11. Prelude to a Flashy Night Part 3: The Flashy end!

**  
ACDC Town: 19:33  
Ooyama homepage**

“Guts, another rejection…” GutsMan bit back his tears at another no-go from Roll for a talk. Normally this wouldn’t bother him much, but after today… “I need someone to talk to, Guts.” Dex was fast asleep, no way would Glyde talk to him at this time of night unless their lives were in danger, MegaMan was MIA until his dad fixed him, and the message boards were closed for the night.

Despite his reputation as a bit of a bully and an idiot -a reputation not wholly undeserved- Dex’s messageboard was pretty popular among the elementary school kids and lower. The two of them worked together to make this place as safe for kids as possible - as well as making sure any talk about bypassing the school security to go to places they shouldn’t never left the page- and GutsMan was quite proud of it. He liked talking -mostly about himself- and just mingling, and the design of the webpage really helped in that. Food was the name of the game when it came to this webpage’s theme, from the Udon noodle guardrails to the game controller like floor. He, Dex, Lan, and MegaMan worked their butts off getting money to pay Yai so she could part with her super awesome apps, like the cyber hockey table, or that new game where you could literally trade viruses and battle them! That one was cool! It was fun when it was active, but a sad ghost town when everyone was offline. At least the N1 qualifiers were a blast. Beating up viruses and showing off awesome Chip Combos, he and Dex were such an awesome team! And soon they were gonna show off to the rest of the world on the national stage! And once all this soap opera drama was sorted out, Roll would-

“GOOD EVENING!”

“GUTS!” The giant Navi jumped in fright at the Mr. Prog for the homepage, dressed like a noodle vendor, was suddenly behind him. “Don’t do that Guts!”

“I HAVE MAIL FOR YOU!” The program announced cheerfully, the icon for the file floating in front of GutsMan. The giant handed Navi took it, the Mr.Prog going away to who knows where. “GOODBYE!”

“Yeah yeah guts, guts…” GutsMan waved him off and began to read the file. “....” Oh no, this can’t be right. “That’s not what the assignment is...” Then he looked at the date. “ _Guts….”_

* * *

  
Back in the real world, in the messy, food ridden, and yet somehow bug free room of Dex, the rotund boy was sleeping on the floor with his legs in the air, having fallen out of his bed during his slumber. As he was dreaming about being awesome however…

|DEEEEEEEEX!| The young boy was jolted awake with a totally manly scream as his Navi suddenly appeared on the computer screen, scared out of his mind. |YOU DID THE WRONG HOMEWORK GUTS! THIS WAS LAST MONTH’S!| Any objection Dex had to being woken up was silenced as dread filled his heart. |WE GOTTA GET THE DISK WITH THE RIGHT ASSIGNMENT, GUTS!|

* * *

  
**ACDC Net: 19:33  
Aftercurrent Hotel Network**

“OH GOD GET THEM AWAY FROM ME!”

From the safety of the Adblocker Forcefield, Piruluk watched as some Navi that was passing by was subjected to those AdBots. _‘Took me 20 minutes to get here because of those stupid things.’_ Punched in the jaw. She was definitely getting clocked in the jaw the second she went to her room. Her and BubbleMan, that worthless waste of oxygen.

Located on the good side of town, the hotel in the real world was middle of the road, only really famous for it’s ridiculous name that was related to the town, and the fact it sat on a big hole in ACDC’s security. It’s Cyberworld equivalent was just as boring as it’s real world equivalent, a large, beige 4 story building with a fountain in the middle. The fountain was the only form of extravagance the 3D modelers decided to apply to the building. The water spout in the middle spewed out the liquid into a dome-like shape that landed just centimeters away from the edge of the fountain, creating the illusion that you were staring at half a sphere of water. She could see a fish or two swim in there, but that was it. There weren’t that many people on the hotel’s server tonight, probably not many in it’s real world equivalent either.

She walked into the lobby, and headed to where the hotel receptionist, a Mr. Prog in a secretary’s dress, was stationed. “GOOD EVENING!” He shouted, much to her irritation, and that big bright smile wasn’t helping her mood either. “HOW CAN I-” She quickly handed him te Epub file. Suddenly his smile dropped to a grimace, and she could see two large Ws in his eyes. “Come with me.” She followed him to one of the deluxe elevators, ones for customers who paid for the most expensive rooms. This elevator had a large rose garden in it, though the poor texturing and the paper like modeling ruined the image. The Mr.Prog made a beeping noise, and soon they were going down. “FlashMan isn’t happy with what you did today.”

“I’m well aware.” She felt herself disconnect for a second. The world felt smaller, closed off. _‘We’re in a Virtual Machine?’_

“The plan for the TetraCode transfer is complete on the human world side. Is your NetOp going to be a problem?”

“Not at all.”

“I hope for your sake that you’re right.” The elevator stopped, the floor indicator showing a giant W. “WWW floor, private server. Have a nice night.”

Piruluk narrowed her eyes at the creature and exited into the room as the door closed behind her. And just as she predicted-

“TAKE THIS BLUB BLUB!”

 _ **POW**_

-Right in the jaw.

* * *

  
**Ayanokoji Network, 21:00  
Yai’s Homepage (Set to private)**

Converting data into different file formats was so hard for humans to do nowadays. They just left it up to Navis to do it, but there were times that you’d need to do it by hand. The problem was just learning how to use the modern equivalent of Right Click & Save As, something many kids today simply didn’t know how to do. And that was part of ACDC Academy Class 2-A’s homework, which was hindered by the fact that the teacher explicitly told the student’s Navi’s to not do it for their NetOps, because she’d know.

“Yes, yes, yes..I see, I see…” No Unicode errors, text was in the proper format… “Excellent work Miss Yai!”

|Thanks Glyde!| The heiress let out a yawn as she began to shut her computer down.|I’m going to bed now; good night.|

“Take care.” When the connection was cut, Glyde immediately had a servant on standby outside the young mistress’s room. _‘Did she seriously think I wouldn’t notice?’_ There wasn’t a day where he didn’t have an eye on her room since the mistress was taken hostage, what on earth was she thinking by hiding that fridge underneath her bed? _‘I suppose I’ll have to inform her father.’_ Oh, both of them will be quite cross with him after this! But first, her other homework! He quickly bought out the files to read over, impressed by what he was seeing. _‘She passed the simulations with flying colors!’_ Hostile takeover prevention, money laundering investigations, and contraction negotiations! Even with her laughable attempts to smuggle contraband into her room, priide was written all over his face, happy that she took her duties as the next head of the Ayanokoji family so seriously!

And then GutsMan came flying in. slamming a good foot into the floor. “GUTS GUTS!” To his credit, Glyde didn’t scream like last time, just stared as GutsMan got up and began shaking him. “WE GOT A PROBLEM GUTS! DEX FORGOT HIS HOMEWORK!”  
“...”Glyde simply narrowed his eyes, unperturbed by the shaking. “Do you have any idea what time it is? Eject user GutsM-”

|DEX FORGOT HIS HOMEWORK??!| Glyde’s eyes widened; of course she was awake! |We have to help him, stat! We don’t know if Ms.Mari has her crazy evil twin standing in for her, and if she did, he’s gonna be in a heap of trouble!| Before he could protest, Yai grabbed her PET from beneath her bed, plugged it into said bed, got Glyde off her family’s network, and soon snuck out of her mansion. She had no problem letting her friends get it for being idiots, but not at the hands of that psycho!

* * *

  
The worst thing about being a Level 0?

 _ **CRAAACK!**_

Fully rendered bones,organs, and the like. And the fact that basic Navi invulnerability can be set to it’s absolute lowest settings by the puppetmasters that control your life. This is what happened to Piruluk more than an hour ago. Her skin was ore purple now than white, her hands and legs bent in ways that would make a contortionist proud. The ability to even breathe had just been given back to her, and she was pretty sure there was more blood on the inside of her than the outside. Now normally this would just be a painful, painful, _painful, **painful**_ annoyance, but it wouldn’t be a proper punishment now would it. |Daddy, I think she’s suffered enough.| That’s why Wily had Mayu reset her physical capabilities and body stare back to when she was just some weak little human girl. Stil, there was some solace in this.

“GRROOOOGHh... “ BubbleMan was a shockingly painful blunt object, and despite the fact he, his oxygen tanks, and his oxygen hose were used to put her in this state, he was in a lot worse shape than she was. Oh it hurt to laugh right now. “Blub... Though it’s not like either of them could do anything other than groan; FlashMan disabled that the second BubbleMan punched her.

|Yes, I think she’s learned her lesson for now. Mayu, heal her.|

And it was then when Piruluk realized what FlashMan meant by ‘needing something to bite on.’ as she was suddenly restored back to normal. It wasn’t like normal Navi restoration where you were restored from an archived backup, her bosses weren’t keen on that when it came to punishments. And so within the four seconds it took for Mayu to heal her, she experienced the hour and 24 minutes worth of pain all over again, and by the time her restoration was complete, it took everything in her to get back up and stare FlashMan in his stupid mouthless face.

|I see you’re not able to talk at the moment.| Wily responded if that was a good thing. |FlashMan, if you would? Now that we’re on a private server, there shouldn’t be any eavesdroppers.| Not even that blasted ‘S’ would be able to find this place! |Go over the plan.||

“Yes, Lord Wily.” A holo-screen appeared in front of the two Navis and the dismembered idiot. “Around 10:00 today, the data package you gave to Piruluk when she returned to her NetOp was released into ACDC Academy’s Public System.” The map screen changed to show a map of the second floor, a bright blue light blinking above Class-2A. “I’m surprised the packet took so long to activate.”

|It was set to activate once Lan, MegaMan, and that teacher of his were out of the school’s communications range.| Wily explained as the screen then changed to show surveillance footage of the teacher in question going over future assignments. |You were able to verify that the teacher wasn’t Yuriko Ozono in disguise, correct?|

“Yes. once they were far enough away from the school, I had this idiot-” A lightning strike slammed into BubbleMan’s nearly dead form. “Send his Bubble Brigade into the facility and begin phase 2 of the operation.”

“Ru….” Everyone’s attention was turned to the shaking Piruluk. “Ru...ko…”

|Do you mean that Kominato girl?| Wily asked dismissively. |Iona and Urith told me all about her. What Lan lacks in common sense , his fellow NetSaver does restraint. Keep to the plan she set for you. And Mayu, I hope you won’t try anything with her LRIG after the last disaster, _right?_ |

|.....|

Wily took that as a yes. |Now then, Piruluk.| Suddenly the blue LRIG found her head turning to the source of the voice against her will, likely where the streaming program was hidden. |After your failed and unsanctioned assasination of MegaMan on a _public network,_ I spent the next three hours scrubbing as much of your presence as I could from every legal and criminal network available to the public. I hope you realize that your hospital visits are going to be postponed for the time being.| Piruluk looked away in anger. And suddenly found her face being slammed into the ground by that same force. |Now that your NAT cloak is useless, you’ll have to be reassigned while we get another LRIG. FlashMan, you will have to handle most of the TetraCode’s transfer alone without the aid of an LRIG, so I’m counting on your NetOp to separate Piruluk from the brats.|

“Understood.”

|Piruluk.| The blue LRIG found herself in control of her body again. |Your new mission is to assist Saiko and FlashMan in keeping MegaMan and his NetOp off their backs, and secure a transfer to the server the TetraCode is located in.|| Piruluk opened her mouth- |Of course those two are going to interfere.|

“Agreed.”

|Daddy’s right.|

“Blub...help me…”

|Not only is the school within spitting distance of their homes, it’s just routine by now. They’re probably going to come an hour in with their friends, completely unaware of what’s coming, just like they always do.| Piruluk couldn’t see him, but she could feel the snarl coming onto Wily’s face. |That’s why we prepared.|

“I had the hypnotized teachers open the shipments of Wily Parts sent to the school. By now Inukai and Sunayama should begin reporting that their Wily Parts were installed.“

|And the results?|

“On my end it went perfectly. There were no conflicts with the differing eras of tech. The machines cooled and heated up as fast as they normally would, and the log reports from the Mr. Progs in each indicated that they weren’t even aware of the hardware addons, nor were they aware of the system BIOS for each device being accessed.”

|Just how I want it. Once Saiko checks the connection lines in case those do-gooders try to cut the power, I want you to make contact with the TetraCode.| FlashMan’s eyes widened. |Not to worry. Even if you were deleted, the data flow wouldn’t corrupt Saiko’s PET or any of your backups. You’ll be the management system, nothing more, and nothing less.| FlashMan sighed in relief. |Now, Piruluk-| He began, as the LRIG in question found it very hard to get any of her limbs to respond. |You’re going to help me and Mayu test out a new project. Mayu, get that Miyuba or whatever her name is in here.|

|OOOOOH!| FlashMan and Piruluk winced; the level of malevolence in a child that ‘age’ was just wrong. |GOTCHA!|

* * *

  
**ACDC Town, 21:55**  
 _ **Hikari Residence, Lan’s room**_

 **SUBPET HAS ENTERED SLEEP MODE.**

With the lights off, Lan stared blankly at the SubPET on the desk, hooked into his desktop’s internal wiring since it was incompatible with his regular PET charger. _‘Finally!’_ He had enough time to change into his pajamas, actually do his homework three times, and watch some low quality 144p TV on the SubPET before the dang thing shut down fully! and now, this late at night, he could do nothing but think about his situation. Right now would be the perfect time for him to go on the net to take a load off, but even he wasn’t cocky enough to risk using a default Navi body against a Mettaur or something.

The monitor lit up in a dim white as black text appeared on it. |The Mr. Progs cannot get in contact with Mayl.| MegaMan said using the oft forgotten text to speech program. And judging by the audio quality and lack of consonants, a very old version

Lan sighed as the computer speakers turned on. “Of course she wouldn’t say anything after what happened.”

|It took them 20 minutes for them to work up the courage to leave the PC. and then another 20 to get back, and another 10 to stop cowering over that creepy desktop background of yours.|

Lan grimaced; he really had to get dad to change that thing. “Can you access anything on that WIXOSS stuff?”

|Not until the batteries of the device recharges. Did you know that this computer cannot be used to operate a SubPET, at all? Between that and my current state, I cannot use the extra processing power to access the data.|

Lan fell head first on his mattress. “When did everything go wrong, MegaMan?”

|I wish I knew Lan. I did not realize that Mayl and Roll were so entrenched in this| And Roll’s appearance and general demeanor,it was the same when in that LRIG form, but she felt like him for some reason!

“I’m not talking about the WIXOSS stuff.” Lan replied, to the Navi’s confusion. “I mean that stuff about her and cars.” He let out a soft groan. “I’m such a bad friend! I should’ve noticed!”

|Uhmm...yes, you should have. It was kinda obvious. Are you not worried about this WIXOSS problem?|

“Nope.” Was Lan’s simple reply. “This is like, the 4th time this happened. You see the pattern right? We’re probably gonna have to get some weird programs or something, you’re gonna use the WIXOSS powers, and we’re probably gonna face some bad guys! This is save the world type of stuff MegaMan, trust me.”

Oh good god he was right. |But what about Mayl? And Roll?|

“I don’t wanna admit it, but we have to worry about them later. Once that SubPET’s recharged, we’re going to have to explain ourselves, and then we gotta do research -ughh- to find out who that LuckyRucky Navi is. And on top of all that junk, we have to do it without triggering that curse thing!”

|Oh yeah.| He completely forgot about the fact that he almost died today. |It will take a while for me to figure out how to divulge the information without triggering anything unpleasant. Go to sleep Lan.|

“Yeah, sure.” He wrapped his blanket around himself like a cocoon and scooched up to his pillow like a caterpillar. _‘Just think about homework and you’ll be off the dreamland in no time!’_ Yeah, some sleep would do him some good.

* * *

“This is the third time I’ve ever seen an LRIG outside of their Level 0 form.” FlashMan remarked as he observed the frozen teenaged girl. “ Her name is Miyubi Matsutame, correct?” He grimaced.” Must she be dressed like _this_?”

|No.|

|Yep!|

“Blub…”

FlashMan shrugged; not like it’ll matter by morning. “So you know what to do with the sacrificial lamb, right Piruluk?”

“Yes.” The pain had subsided and she was soon back to normal, her face impassive. “And you will kill MegaMan, correct?”

“As long as you don’t interfere.” FlashMan answered. “In his current state, I may not even have to delete him. Saiko could just crush that clunker of a PET under his heel!”

|You probably could.| Those SubPETs were annoyingly weak to intense pressure. |But I’m warning you right now.| Wily began. |Leave everyone alive.| Piruluk hid her shock |Unlike Inukai’s plan with the YokaYoka Zoo, this will have your NetOp’s fingerprints written all over it. If you get a murder charge, it will be all over for you, and should that happen…| Wily let the threat hang.

“Not to worry Lord Wily. We’re ready to die for the cause.” FlashMan spared a look at Piruluk, who didn’t react. _‘And some are more than willing.’_

|Good. Now, let’s draw the pests to the school before the illustrious Dr.HIkari can repair MegaMan.|

* * *

“Whoa.” Of all the things Dex and Yai expected after this mess of a day, a cute older girl wasn’t one of them. “Uhhmm...uhmmmm..” That was some super long hair! It reached all the way to her knees, and there was so much! And all that purple! _‘Is she wearing Lan’s mom’s clothes?!’_ “Is...is...s..isss-”

“-Is Lan up?” Yai interjeted, stepping in front of the fat slab or hormones and readjusting her purse. “We need his help with something.”

Chiyori stared at the pajama clad kids blearily. That fat kid had some weird cape on the back of his onesie, and she was pretty sure the little blonde boy with the forehead was wearing something with real fur. She should know; she’d ruin plenty of expensive things that she learned to recognize them by sight alone! “Lan...Lan….Laaaaaaannnnn….” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Dr. Hikari’s son!”

“Yeah...this is his house.”

“I….uhh…” Meanwhile Dex was being _super_ helpful.

“The alarm didn’t go off, so I guess you’re friends with him or something?” Chiyori let out a yawn and let them in, closing the door behind them as the kids wiped their shoes on the carpet. “I don’t know where he is, I’m going to bed, night.”

“Uh huh…” A red faced Dex mumbled as the pretty girl went back to the guest room and slammed the door shut. “She’s nice…”

“...” Yai narrowed her eyes. “Something’s going on here.”

“Yeah I know!”

“ _Not_ her Dex!” Yai Jacked Glyde into the house’s surveillance network. “Unlike you, I know how to read the room, so I know something big just happened here.” She turned to her PET screen. “Glyde, access the systems please?”

|Understood Miss Yai.|

* * *

Heading to the control panel for the surveillance system, Glyde noticed the change of mood that his NetOp was talking about. The Mr.Progs were lethargic with their heads held down, unable to look him in the eye. As he and Yai had admin access to a lot of the Hikari family’s systems, they didn’t stop him from going through the family’s records.

* * *

_**15 minutes later….**_

“Yai, come on let me see!” Dex pleaded. “I wanna know what happened!”

Yai, face blank, logged Glyde out and put her PET back in her bag. “Dex, what I just saw is something we discuss with Lan, and _only_ Lan.” Dex was about to ask why, but a businesswoman like glare from Yai, something she was trained to do, shut him up. “I….Mayl’s involved in something big Dex, and she made sure that Lan wouldn’t tell. That was all I was able to get.”

“Huh? I don’t get it. It’s Dr.Hikari, the guy wouldn’t have cruddy software.”

“I don’t think it’s…” She shook her head. “Nevermind, let’s go get Lan.” She dragged the much taller boy by the arm upstairs with her to Lan’s room, where she gently knocked on the door, noting that Mr. Hikari was talking with someone on the phone in the room next to Lan’s. Sounded important. And given how everyone was acting on the footage, Lan and MegaMan were their best bets to figure out what was going on.

The door opened up, but there was no one on the other side, likely MegaMan’s doing. Lan was sound asleep in his bed, curled up in his blanket. Dex, having recovered and remembering what happened today, tiptoed behind Yai, nearly letting out a yelp when the computer monitor came on with the words ‘what do you two want?’ being displayed on it.

“We need Lan’s help.” Yai whispered. “The idiot behind me got the wrong assignment, and we don’t want him getting in trouble if Ms.Mari decides to let her sister teach.

|I see.| It only took him a couple seconds to consider. |Do You have a spare PET in that bag of yours Yai?|

“Yep.” She took it out of her purse and sat at Lan’s computer. “Transferring you to it is gonna take a bit, hold on.” She took out her own PET and activated the flashlight. She then accessed the computer’s desk and got to work. “Oh, hold on.” She got up for a second and fiddled through Lan’s drawers until she pulled out a GigaChip. And nearly dropped it in shock. “I...didn’t think he’d have it.” Yai bought the Chip up to the monitor’s light for Dex to see.

“How did he even get that?” Dex nearly yelled, remembering to keep his voice down at the last minute. “He’d be unstoppable with those!”

“There’s a lot of GigaChips in that drawer.” Yai said as she plugged in the Gospelᾨ chip into her PET. “All of them from major baddies too. I’d hate to be the guy he uses those against.” The fan on her PET was soon set to full blast, not having the computational power to fully use a GigaChip of that power. Then again barely anyone did.

* * *

|And you couldn’t use the other method?|

FlashMan shook his head. “All the screens were replaced with new LCD ones, something the commercial PETs lack as of this moment. I would need to be hooked up to a larger system to increase the Hypno Flash’s power enough to bypass that, but the shock could kill them especially the children.”

|I see. And what else?|

“The school’s higher ups are under my control. Even with the Hypno Flash, I couldn’t get any of the administrative personnel to divulge the Emergency Transfer Server for the TetraCode, so I’m going to have to fight my way through the server to get there. Mariko Ozono and the rest of the Academy’s elementary teachers are currently sleeping thanks to a cold shock from Piruluk that I ordered. They’re still tagged, and ready to activate on my command.”

|Good. When Lan and his friends get on campus, use them. Now as for Miyubi here, I’ve reviewed the battle footage from your first fight with MegaMan, Piruluk, and I noticed that Roll did something very unique with the blue pest.|

“..I see where you’re going with this.” Maybe she could trigger a deletion in the poor girl’s Level 0 form during the fight. It’d be so easy. It’d be merciful compared to what she’d suffer in the coming hours.

|Don’t escalate unless he does.| Mayu warned surprisingly. |That stupid boy and his Navi are already deep into my game, I don’t want his NetOp to be a Selector!|

“Understood.” FlashMan gave her a look that said ‘did you really?’ but she ignored it.

“Blub…”

|Hm?| Mayu’s attention was turned to BubbleMan. |Oh yeah, he’s here, I forgot all about him!|

|So did I.| Wily logged the Navi out for repairs. |MegaMan’s current state is our best and possibly only chance to defeat him should he ever go online. Do.not.waste.it. Are we clear?|

“Yes sir.” The two remaining members responded.

|Good. I’m closing out this Virtual Machine. Return to your NetOps, and FlashMan, report everything I’ve said to Saiko. Once I contact Inukai to assist you, I’ll give the two of you a full dossier on her as well.|

“Yes sir.” **FLASHMAN.EXE HAS LOGGED OUT**

|The operation begins soon, Piruluk. For _her_ sake, that TetraCode better be in my hands by the morning.|

“Understood.”

|Saiko will also send you an update to the mission parameters as progress is made. That is all.|

|Cya Piruluk!|

 **LOGGING OUT ALL USERS.**

The connection was soon cut, leaving Piruluk all alone as she logged out too. The Virtual Machine disappeared along with her, leaving no evidence that it was there. All that was left was a luxurious pool.

* * *

Well. this was aggravating.

MegaMan’s defaulted body was laid out on the operating table for all to see. Since it was such a simple backup, there were none of the organs and bits that really enthusiastic Navi makers liked to put in their creations, just simple wireframes. Putting MegaMan into sleep mode and taking him apart was the easy part. In fact all of this was painfully easy, as it seems someone had done a lot of the work in repairing his basic functionality, even giving a backdoor for easier repair instead of having to use that ghastly, archaic C++. no, the real problem was the ‘help’ he had to endure while doing this.

 **LUCKKKKK-YY_y_Y_YY_ LU-C-C_K-K-Y A-KfKKkii-**

“OH JEEZ SHES FREAKING OUT AGAIN!”

“RUN!”

Glyde sighed as panic resumed around him for the fifth time. “Miss Yai, may I _please_ change the wallpaper?!” He put his fingers in his hands and whistled, causing the Mr.Progs to stand in formation. “That’s better.” But it wouldn’t last long.

|I wish, but Lan’s dad put some lock on the wallpaper settings. It’s like he _wanted_ to make it impossible for Lan or anyone to change it.|

|This is why we started hanging out at my place| Dex said, shivering in fear.

“I see….” He took a deep breath and turned to the Mr.Progs. “As AyanoTech Administrative Navi and sponsor to NetSaver Agent Number 45, I request administrative access to all of MegaMan.EXE’s systems. Now that we’ve had him safely dissected, we can safely reach a workaround for his current state.”

“....”

“Well?”

“UHMMMM…” One of the Mr.Progs floated towards him nervously, with that big goofy smile. “MEGAMAN DOESN’T HAVE ANY TEMPLATES. UNLESS YOU MEAN THE STYLE CHANGE, BUT THAT WOULD-”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” Glyde responded. “Unless you _want_ one of this country’s best government employed NetBattlers to be out of commission should another major incident come up, correct?”

“I….”

“It’s just temporary, I assure you.” Not to mention it would have to be a Style that wouldn’t let him fight, because in this state, that would be the last thing anyone needed! “Now then, give me access please.”

“O...OK…”

* * *

Yai and Dex stared at the information on the computer screen. “That’s it?” Dex muttered. “I thought he had more of those costumes. There’s like four here.”

“He does.” Yai said with confusion as she began right clicking and going into the properties of each Style to check them out. “The problem is that it needs to be a style that won’t mess him up anymore than he already is. His default Style here-” She hovered the mouse over to MegaMan’s default appearance, labelled ‘NormalStyle.’ “-Takes up way too much memory for his current state to handle.” This was worse than she thought… “We’re gonna need his source code to bring him back to normal.”

Dex scoffed. “That’s easy; you’re Lan’s NetSaver sponsor. You can-”

“-Nope.” Dex deflated at the answer. “Ayanotech isn’t that high up in the government,so you’d have to ask Lan’s dad or Chaud to get that. But I’m not sure that’ll help.” She hovered over to the last Style, whose icon was glitched out and corrupted into what would be described as a trypophobe’s nightmare. “This Style was added around the time we were on the bus, but MegaMan’s memory and programming language can’t even handle his default appearance. There’s no possible way for this Style to form, even in this current state.”

“Doesn’t look like a virus.” Dex muttered as Yai Right Clicked it and opened the Properties. “I don’t see any-” His jaw dropped. “.....”

“....” Yai stared agape at what she was seeing. “That can’t be right...Glyde?”

|Yes, I’m seeing this mistress, but I can’t believe it. How did that LuckyRucky woman do this?|

There were two ways for MegaMan to undergo a Style Change. To fight in a _lot_ of battles, like around 200 or so, or undergo a monumental amount of physical or mental stress. He and the PET he occupied must also have the proper memory and storage space to hold the data while MegaMan’s CPU analyzes his experiences. Needless to say, Styles were usually a last resort for him, and had their own special folder in his systems that he could access. But this was different, far far different.

Because now all of MegaMan’s data, the thing he needed to be himself, was locked in this final Style.

This was bad. Very very bad. Dex and Yai looked at each other resolutely, and Yai quickly picked AquaShadow, the one that would be the least taxing. It’s rapid fire and quick charging would give MegaMan all the support he needed while not taxing his fragile systems, and the Style itself took up the least amount of memory. Not to mention it’s built-in firewall was the best out of all of them, with it’s ability to lock out any status effects in exchange for low HP. With that done, now came the part that both were dreading since they came in...waking Lan up and finding out just what the heck was going on.

“YOWCH!” And Dex decided that tact was for suckers, and just yanked him out of bed. “Watch it Dex! I-” He blinked, noticing how dark it was. “What are you guys doing in my house?”

Yai pointed to the computer. “We have to talk,Lan.”

* * *

**ACDC Academy 22:20  
Akira’s Room**

“OW FUCK!” Was the first thing Akira yelled upon waking up as Piruluk logged back into her PET. “Stupid Tama!” Who the fuck punches a girl there?!

|Good evening Akira.| Well seeing her like that cheered her up, even though she could sympathize. She now understood why guys reacted the same way when one of their own was hit there. She took a couple minutes of watching her write before speaking up. |You’re past due for the meeting.|

“...Shit!” Ignoring the pain, Akira grabbed her PET and headed out the door. And promptly ran back in to get on a sweater. “Freaking air conditioners not working!”

|How odd.|

Once Akira got on a sweater and pants, she headed out the door, making sure to lock it behind her. “...” She narrowed her eyes and headed towards the elevator. “Something’s wrong.”

|What makes you say that?|

Akira got onto the elevator and pressed down. “I don’t know, but I feel like we’re in trouble.”

|I see.| Of course she’d have that intuition, given her track record in life.

The elevator got to their floor and Akira got off, taking a second to adjust to the temperature. “It’s even colder down here!” It was so cold that there was frost on the walls! FROST! “We need to find Ruko, now.”

|I agree, but why do you care?|

“Because dumbass, if anything happens to these people my life’s over, kaput. And secondly, these people didn’t do anything to me. They’re not like Iona or that simp of a brotherfucker, so if anything happens to them when I could stop it, _I’d_ be the one to feel bad, and I hate that shit!”

|Understandable.| Not really.

“Look, I learned my lesson! I’m a cunt to people who deserve it now! They’re less likely to call the cops or get their friends to kick my ass!

...Her sense of morals were so broken. But then again she herself wasn’t one to throw stones, so Piruluk decided to change the subject. |I’ve sent Ruko an Email. She’s quite angry with us.|

“I’d be too if I was covering for _your_ mistakes and then-WHAT THE FUCK?!”

|What are you-| Piruluk began, before Akira pointed the PET screen in front of her. |What?| That was all she could say; WHAT?! |This is…| All of the teachers under FlashMan’s control were staring at them. Just staring at them. _‘1.2...3..4..’_ She quickly opened up the mission report and quickly found her answer; every single teacher and live-in student was now under Saiko’s command! _‘This is going to be easier than I thought.’_ Now she just needed to make sure Lan -and unfortunately Akira were out of the way. |Akira, we need to go forward.|

“Nope!” She quickly turned around, and fell to the ground when three of the teachers, fat, old guys, were suddenly in front of her. “HOW!?” She just saw them over there, no way these old fucks were that fast! One of them looked like she was in her 70s!

|Like I said, we need to go forward.| Piruluk began to bullshit. |The cold, the teachers, this school is under attack at this very moment., and we’re in the perpetrator’s line of sight. If we try anything, we can _die._ |

“Uh-huh, ok!” The teachers forced her to her feet and nudged her forward. “Well, thanks for that!” She said as cheerfully as she could, making a mental note to take a long shower because this was so wrong! “Go forward right?” The teachers nodded and pointed down the hall. “Ok good! I’ll just be on our way and-”

“DoN **t BoTher Ge** tInG HelP” Akira screamed as one of the teachers was suddenly next to her ear. “I C **uT** all PeT C **om** MunicATIONS T **O** anD f **rOM** thiS buIldING. YOuR PIEce of junK IS TOO ModERN to ACcess The BackUp Software.”

Piruluk rolled her eyes. _‘Really with this FlashMan?’_ |Have you seen a brunette our age?|

“WHY ARE YOU ASKING QUESTIONS?!”

|It’s not like we have anything to lose.|

“dON’T aSK ANYm **ORE quES** TiONS.” Was what they were answered with, yet it was as though the man was reading off a script instead of talking to them.  
“THeSE GuYS aR **E nOT PR** OgrammeD TO REsPOND TO AnY **mO** RE qUErIES. tRY aNYthIN **G AN** D wE’LL EScORT YOU BY fORCE”

“GOOOO”

“Goooo”

“GOOOO NOO **OOOOW**!”

“OK OK!” Akira ran for her life down the halls, feeling the stares from the teachers as she _heard their footsteps!_ “WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO?!”

|I’ve seen the Emails from Ruko, and-||

Akira bought Piruluk to her face. “I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE YOU TO SAVE MY OWN SKIN BITCH! USE YOUR CYBER BRAIN OR WHATEVER AND HELP ME!” They turned the corner.

|....If you’d let me finish, I was saying that Ruko has had the same problem. They’re going to funnel us right to where she and Tama are. I should make it clear that-| **SWITCHING TO TEXT MODE** |-They confiscated her PET. Tama is currently in the school’s network.|

“Oh THATS JUST GREAT!” There was one door in front of them, and therefore one way to go: one of the server rooms. “Ok, I’m here!” She held her hands up with the PET in her left one, and turned to the teachers. “There, you happy?”

FLASH

“AAHG MY EYES!” A blue blinding light filled every corner of the hallway, Akira catching her PET before it fell to the floor. Her eyes stung, and it took a couple seconds for her to adjust. When she did, she found nothing changed. “THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

“YoU aRe nOT cONtROLLeD?”

“IS THAT’S WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Akira quickly ran into the server room and slammed it shut, locking it behind her and turning to the dozens of servers in the room. It was cold in here, but not as much as outside, and yet both girls could hear the cooling fans going into overdrive. Ohohoohoho fuck this!” She began cracking her knuckles.

Piruluk’s ears twitched after hearing that. |What are you doing?|  
“School’s under attack, the place is cold as shit, the teachers are all zombies, which means some Navi’s behind this. So I’m gonna wreck this place! I could unplug all these servers, but fuck it, I’m pissed!”

|Question.| Shit shit shit! |What happens to you afterwards?|

“Jail, ruined life, etcetera.” Now which of these looked the most breakable. “I came here to get a fresh start and I’m this close to turning into some creepy guy’s fucktoy! I’m gonna break something!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Ruko’s voice shouted, causing Akira to stop as her fellow Selector came out from the shadows, letting out a yawn. “Took you long enough.”

“Well then maybe you should’ve controlled your LRIG better!” Akira countered, pointing to her crotch. “Or teach her basic biology, because I’m sure it hurts for us more down here than it does guys!” She quickly changed the subject. “That’s not important right now, why can’t I destroy these computers?!”

The answer was not what Akira expected. “Because if you did, everyone under the perpetrators control will die.” That took the wind out of Akira’s sails fast. “After our Sycnrho Battle, I went to set up everything, when I got an alert on my PET that someone interfered with the school’s temperature control system. I began doing some inspecting, and when I went down to this floor to check, I wound up right here, same as you.”

“Ok that’s nice, but what does this have to do with what you just said?! And how the fuck are these old guys doing anime ninja crap?!”

|Probably because of some mind alterations.| Piruluk said, Akira bringing her PET up in confusion. |When the teacher asked if we weren’t controlled, I’m guessing that light must have had something to do with it.|

“Yeah.” Ruko agreed. “I also detected some power surges during my inspection, and sent the data to every NetSaver in the area. So only one person got it, and I’m pretty sure he’s asleep, so we’re on our own.”

“Oh that kid.” Yeah, that makes sense. “Keep going…”

“The power surges are on the exact same level as that light that blinded you earlier. Whoever did this to everyone out there must have hacked into the PET’s and associated devices first before they got access to the school’s main power grid.”

Akira clenched her fist. “So it really doesn’t matter if this server’s destroyed.”

|And if we did destroy it, whoever is responsible for this can simply send a kill command to the brains of those he affected. They are his attack force and his hostages. As for the second point, It would be foolish to assume that this is the only data room that controls all functionality on this floor. If we ignore point 1 and attempt to destroy this room, backup power would kick in, and we would have just wasted our time.|

“DAMN IT!” Akira punched the server as hard as she could, but Ruko quickly sent her to the ground with a sweep kick. “OW! I GET IT, DON’T TOUCH IT!”

“Good.” She tried to help Akira up, but the girl swatted her hand away. “They took my PET for some reason, and it’s weird; I heard the voice of a little girl over the intercom for a second, and it sounded like she really hated Tama.”

|I don’t get why they didn’t take ours. No doubt they don’t see me and Akira as a threat given the PET she has.|

“Yep, that makes sense.” Akira admitted reluctantly, taking a look at her clunker. “So what now?”

“I beat the crap out of them all.” Ruko said, Akira and Piruluk shocked at the answer as she put on some gloves. “What’s with that face? Can’t leave any fingerprints.”

“...Nothing.” Holy shit, this was not how she expected her first day back at school to end. “I just hang back and uhh...yeah, I’m not doing anything right now, right?”

“Right.” The grin Ruko, freaking _Ru-Ru,_ gave her sent chills down her spine. “Excuse me for a moment, this won’t take long.”

“Y-yeah.” And it didn’t take long at all. It was so quick, so vicious, so brutal, and all Akira could do is watch in awe. “So uhhh, Ru-Ru?”

“Yeah?!” Ruko shouted as she grabbed one of the hypno-zombies by the legs and threw him to the side. “What is it?!”

“Did something uhmm happen? I don’t think you were ever….like this? I think?” Yeah, she definitely wasn’t.

Ruko grabbed the head of one man and used it to hammer the head of another before speaking. “With my NetSaver duties and REAL LIFE-” She kicked one of the teachers, a middle aged woman, in the stomach, knocking her out. “-stuff HAPPENING-” She grabbed another by the hand and sent her into five of the teachers that were rushing after her. “-I couldn’t do any WIXOSS stuff so I took up FIGHTING-” Akira watched as she elbowed a man in the nose and then used that same limb to punch another person in front of her in the throat. “-And I got a knack for it!”

“Uh-huh…” She remembered being weirded out by Ru-Ru enjoying fighting in WIXOSS a bit _too_ much, but she never imagined miss goody two shoes had this side of her! “It’s actually kind of hot…”

“You say something?!” Ruko asked as she downed the last teacher.

“Nothing!” She quickly ran to Ruko/the safest place to be right now, jumping over a body or two. “Guess you took to fighting huh?”

Ruko shrugged. “I remember I hung out with these two girls, and I _really_ got along with one of them, Sachi I think? It’s not important right now.”

“I guess not…” Good lord, what a massacre. “So why didn’t you do this earlier?”

“You weren’t answering my calls, the school’s a freezer, and I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t know if you were sleeping or one of these guys, so I didn’t want to move until I was sure. You’re the only other-” She moved to her ear. “Selector in the school that I know of, so if they got their hands on Piruluk, we’d all be screwed.”

“Oh.” She was worried about her? “ I don’t know what to sa-BAD TOUCH!”

“I’m just so glad you’re alright!” Ruko exclaimed, strengthening her hug. “We may not like each other very much-”

“-I don’t like this, back off!”

“But right now we’re the only ones that can do anything!” She let go, much to Akira’s relief. “Now we need to get out of here. Because they’re going to wake up soon, and they’re going to be a _lot_ stronger.”

She didn’t need to tell Akira twice! The two girls and LRIG made their way to another safe space, unaware that they were being watched.

* * *

  
**ACDC Academy, 22:30  
Admin Server **

A large spacious room filled with ugly paintings, ugly carpeting, and ugly wallpaper. The sheer size, as big as a house, and the amount of crap in here would answer any inquisitive mind’s questions on if the school’s funds were being misappropriated. This server was where things happened in ACDC Academy, the master control. And now it was in the hands of WWW.  
From the fancy massage chair, FlashMan, legs crossed, watched the two try to escape. _“I’ll leave them alone for now.’_ Until he was ready to begin the TetraCode transfer. He was well aware of the Emails being sent out to every NetSaver in the area, which means sooner or later, MegaMan would get it, even in that clunky PET. he had to be ready for anything, and prep Miyubi for battle.

“LET TAMA OUT OF HERE!” And find some way to deal with that annoyance in the cage above. “She’s gonna kick your butt if you don’t let her out of here!”

FlashMan rolled his eyes. “As if you could do anything.” Without a Selector, the walking megaphone only had her Level 0 form, and even at his measly 300HP he could slap her around. He didn’t know how that was possible, but Mayu must have really hated her if she exercised that level of control. “Just sit back and watch _Shiro._ You’re in for a surprise.”

“TAMA’S NOT THAT WHITE!”

“Yeah ok.” He should try out more functions on this chair, this is _marvelous!_ “I’m ready when you are Saiko. Just give me the word…”

* * *

  
“You’re kidding!” Lan exclaimed as he looked at the screen.

“Do I look like I’m joking?!” Yai yelled. “This is bad! I managed to make a temporary fix for you, but it’s not going to last! Even in a new PET, MegaMan’s capabilities are going to be seriously crippled!”

Lan looked glumly at the screen. The Mr.Progs and Glyde had quickly put a list up of Chips that he and MegaMan couldn’t use, lest his brother suffer total system crash. “I gotta seriously edit my folder.”

“Not to mention all that junk about-OW!” Yai quickly elbowed him in the stomach. “Got it!”

Lan ignored that for now; seemed personal. “Let’s boot him up. We can figure out something-”

|YOU GOT MAIL!| Everyone jumped at the loud Mr. Prog’s voice from the computer, an emergency alert coming on the screen.

Lan quickly read the image and nearly let out a scream. “OF ALL THE TIMES!”

Dex read the Email. “NOW?! Seriously?!”

Yai sighed as she had Glyde call a taxi. “Your luck sucks…”

“I know!” How did an alert on the school being attacked take that long to get here?! He quickly looked through his computer to select a Folder preset. _‘This is gonna have to do.’_ He’d be dead if they fought an LRIG with this, but it would have to do. “Yai, hand me the PET,.”

* * *

  
Yuichiro did nothing as he heard his boys and their friends _once again_ go out to possibly fight another murderous criminal. It was times like this that he and his wife would just sit and wait, potentially bring out the booze if their sons were too far away like in Kotobuki, but Haruka was staying at a friend’s place, something about the road home being blocked by a bunch of men pretending to be animals, and _actual_ animals from ACDC Zoo running amok as if something set them off! The police and the Sniper Joes in the area were swamped trying to contain this madness, and it was probably going to get worse from here!

 _‘I should probably go to bed.’_ He thought, looking at his lonely, lonely king sized mattress. His wife was safe, and wherever the boys went, it sure as hell was safer than downtown right now!


End file.
